Lectures Upon the Passion Resurrection and Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ

to ask this: No, it was rather the fear of danger, that moved him to ask it: for he feared some danger to come unto himself, when he heard that he was the Son of God: therefore partly for this cause, and partly, because Christ knew that Pilate disdained Him, and all spiritual graces in Him: He gave him none answer. But let us follow out the knowledge of CHRIST once begun upon the love of the truth, then we may be assured, that according to His promise He will hear us: for He says, Verily, verily, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, that shall he give you, JOHN. XVI. 23. Thou who hast that sweet promise, Knocke, and it shall be opened, shouldest thou not be instant to make inquiry of JESUS, who offereth Himself so willingly, and says, I am the Light of the world : and, Come to Mee to get the water of Life: Alas, that thou shouldest perish for default of seeking of grace! Ye would marvel, that JESUS answered not a word: I spake of this somewhat before I shall say only this for the present: The Lord He knew His hour was coming that He should die, and He knew it was His Fathers will: therefore He would not utter so much as a word to stay and hold back His death. If He had given Pilate evident and sure information what manner of person He was, then happily He would have stayed, and would have proceeded no further, and would not have slain Him: but he knew not with whom he dealt, when he gave out the sentence of death against Him. But it may be asked (with reverence we speak it) Was not this an hard matter, that Christ would not do so much as to tell Pilate that this was God's work, and that He Himself was the Son of God? was it not an hard matter so to hinder this man's salvation? But I say, What reckoning is to be made of Pilate, and all the creatures in the world, Angels, and men, so that God be glorified? We are all made to glorify Him, and except He had a respect to His own glory in the creature, He would never have made man nor Angel: If it please the Lord to be glorified in thy damnation, hold thee content: Hath not the Potter (says Paul ) power of the claye, to make of the same lump one vessel to honor, and another to dishonor. Roman. 9.21. I say more, God in that his great sa nilie, hath some vessels of honor, and some of dishonor. 2. Tim • th. 2.20. If that thou find thyself to be one of the vessels of honor, thou hast no cause to complain, and to say, Wherefore was this man made to shame? for thou hast enough: if thou hast gotten mercy, thank GOD, that of His free will He hath put a difference betwixt thee and him. There are none who are ordained to be vessels of honor, but they will seek the honor of God, evē suppose it were by their own destructiō, as ye may read of Moses. This is the nature of all them who have gotten some assurance of GOD'S favor in JESUS: and if thou have this assurance in thine heart, certainly thou art an instrument of glory.

Now to ende: Ye see, Brethren, in this whole action the pitiful estate of Pilate : he is tossed to and fro betwixt two parties, his own conscience on the one part, vrges and forces him to stand and plead for Christ; and on the other part, the desire that he hath to pleasure the vnportunate Jews, and the fear that he hath to offend Caesar, moves him to go on in that process against Christ, till at last he pronounces sentence against Him. Judges by his example are to take good heed to their proceedings in judgment, and to keep their hands from evil; and that they sit not in a wicked judgment. Be not Judge against the innocent: Pilate sat in judgment doing wickedly, pronoūcing sentence against the Lord of Glory. If thou sit in judgment, pronounce not sentence against y ^e innocent, either leave that judgment, or then absolve the innocent in despite of the world. It is no small matter to pronounce sentence of damnation. The Lord grant us this conscience, that whensoever we shall be employed, we may be employed in doing of good deeds, and in glorifying God, that we may have that assurance of grace in Jesus Christ: To whom with the Father, and Holy Spirit, be all Honor and Praise, forever: Amen.

THE TENTH LECTURE, OF THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

I N this whole History of the suffering of JESUS CHRIST under Pontius Pilate, we see a continual strife betwixt the Judge Pilate, and the accusers. Pilate labors by all means to get the innocent set free: The Hie Priests be y ^e contrary endeavor themselves to get Jesus Christ crucified. Pilate seeks, if it had been possible, to follow his conscience: they seek by all means the contrary, to harden the heart of Pilate. The last words as ye heard, the Jews rose, and said, We have a law, by the which he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God: These words of theirs are so far from that, that they take away the conscience of Pilate, that by the contrary, by these words the conscience of Pilate is more wakened than before, and he begins to fear JESUS CHRIST, and humbles himself more than ever he did, yea, in such sort, that when as he hears tell, that JESUS was the Son of GOD, he demands of Him, Whether He was the Son of GOD, or no? but he receives no answer: for the LORD JESUS had concluded to suffer in all patience, and to obey the Heavenly will of His Father. Now in this Text that we have read, we have heard how Pilate in anger speaks to Jesus, thinking that He had not known him, and that He gave him not his due honor, and says, Knowest thou not, with whom thou hast to do? and that I have power to crucify thee, and I have power to loose thee? The Lord answers, No, thou would have no power, except it were givē thee frō above: he therefore, who hath delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin. In the first part of this Text, we have the conference betwixt Pilate and Jesus. To speak of this demand of Pilate's, ye may see by his words that the warning that he got a little before, that Jesus was the Son of God, that fear & reverence of Jesus Christ, wherewith the heart was touched, it was but vanishing. We may mark here the instabilitie of Pilate: first, he hath no fear of JESUS, and then of a suddaintie he is moved with a reverence and fear: and last, this reverence is scarcelie entered into his heart, when it euanishes away: and being angry against CHRIST, he falls out in blasphemy against GOD. And this is no new thing, for we see this same in men nowadays: Ye will see men who have lived very loosely, taking their pastime, and upon a suddaintie ye shall see them have a kind of repentance and reverence, but ere ye look about you, all shall euanish. This is too plentiful in great men and small. The ground is this, the heart was never truly renewed, but in the mean time of the feigned repentance the heart was full, of the gall of bitterness, as Peter speaketh to Simon Magus. The reverence or repentance, was but like a scroofe of honey rubbed on venom, and then when the venom breaks out, the scroofe goes away, as the morning dew before the sun. Then, if thou wouldest have the fear of God to abide in thine heart, thou must always be deluing and digging down into the heart, there is an infinite deepness of maliciousness in it. Therefore, he who would have stability, let him see, that that ground be honest and good, and be not content with the dregs, look that the heart be sound. There is nothing so deceitful as the heart of man, Ierem. 17.9: it will not only beguile another man, but it will be guile a man himself, and if that fraud bide in thee, it will not leave thee, till it bring thee to destruction.

Now, let us mark the words of Pilate, Knowest thou not that I have pow • r to crucify thee, and to absolve thee. Brethren, wl at else is this, but to claim to himself an absolute power, either to slay the innocent, or to let Him go free, as he pleases: this is such a power, as only the God of Heaven hath: He hath not given this power to no creature, neither to man, nor Angel, this is only proper to the great God. We see by the example of Pilate, that this is natural to Magistrates and Princes, to think that their power cannot be restrained or limitated by any law, to slay, or save by the law, but to do with the law: as they please. Albeit Princes or Judges will seem to be very modest, and to claim nothing, but that which is right, and agreeable both to God's Law, and man's law. Pilate said a little before, I will not crucify Christ, because he is innocent: yet for all this modesty: provoke them once, make them angry once, they shall utter suddenly in wrath, what they think and esteem of their power, they will then blaspheme, and & say that their power is absolute.

Experience may teach this, that of all men in the world, the estate of Princes, Judges and Potentates is most dangerous. The more that a man have of power, of riches, or of the goods of this world, his estate is more dangerous. There is nothing more dangerous, than to put a sword or a scepter in the hand of a natural man: for, Brethren, to put power in the hands of a natural man, is as much as to put the sword in the hands of a mad man. Paul the third Chapter to Titus, and third verse, calls a natural man a mad man, albeit he were never so discreet, he is mad. We were all mad, says Paul, as they are. A mad man will slay others, and lastly, he will slay himself in the ende, and so shall he who hath power, if he be no more but a natural man.

Would to God, that Princes and Magistrates, would take heed to this, it is required that all estates be renewed by the Spirit. Woe is to the King, and to the subject, the rich and the beggar, who is not borne again. In the Evangel according to John, Christ says to Nicodemus, Except a man be borne again, he shall not see the Kingdom of GOD. But it is most requisite that these men who are set in high rooms, and have gotten all the pleasures in the world at their will, that they be renewed: for without sanctification, all outward things will make thee worse: As great riches, and honors, as great temptations to make thee to forget GOD. All thy pleasures shall bring to thee as great displeasure: yea, they shall work damnation to thee in hell, except the LORD give thee His Spirit. There was never a King so wise, great and high, but if he got not regeneration, he shall kill himself with that same power he got in his hand.

So let us all seek this regeneration, and chiefly Kings, who think, & will say, Who should be renewed but poor silly persons: they think it lawful for themselves to commit all uncleanness, fornication, blasphemy, &c. and to sell themselves to all sin: No, if thou, who hast gotten honor be not renewed, thy damnation shall far exceed the damnation of the beggar.

Let us weigh the words: This is a marvelous thing Pilate stood up before and protested that Christ Jesus was innocent: Now he stands up again, and says, That he hath power to do with him what he pleased. How can these stand? what can be gathered of these two voices: Even this, that notwithstanding of His innocence, he might crucify Him: for it is as much as this, Jesus, for all thine innocence I have power to crucify thee.

Who will s • and up and say, that he hath power over an innocent man, to slay, but only he who is a murderer: So Pilate in effect professes himself to be a murderer, for it is as much as he said, I am a murderer, & will take thy life from thee, albeit thou be an innocent. Is not this a great madness to a Magistrate, who is placed in power above others, to call himself a murderer? The ground of this, is pride against God in the heart: a proud man is ever a mad man, for pride is against God, & it makes a man mad: and therefore as the heart is proud, so the mouth is foolish: the most proud man is the most foolish in talking: Look and consider the proud man when thou hearest him speak, and thou wilt say: Yonder man is a foolish man. And this proceeds of the Lord's just and wise dispensation: the proud man in his heart dishonoures the Majesty of GOD. (Thou who art proud hast ado with God, and not with thy fellows) Therefore the LORD in His just Judgment will cause thy mouth to speak to thy shame to accuse thyself: He will cause thee who art a proud King call thyself a murderer to shame thyself, and to be revenged of thy proud heart. Thus much for Pilate's demand: which contains a blasphemy against that Majesty: and therefore JESUS will not let him go away vnreprooued: He says to him, Well, Thou wouldst have no power over me, except it were given thee from above: as for them who have put me in thine hands, woe is to them. their sin is the greater, & their damnation the more: to wit, the Priests & the Jews. There are two partes of this answer: The first concerns the Majesty of GOD, the second concerns the High Priests, and the Jews : for the LORD hath ado with two sorts of persons: for there was two sortes of persons who put Him in the hands of Pilate : The first was GOD: The next was the Jews▪ who delivered Him to be condemned: As for GOD, Look what He speaks of him, and howe reverently, Thou wouldest have no power, except it were given thee from above: As for man, He accuses him of sin. Now let us examine every part of these: Thou wouldest have no power over me, except it were given thee from above : Thou gloriest too much of thy power, as though it were of thyself, and not of GOD: for if thou forgettest that heavenly providence, without the which nothing can come unto me: But I tell thee, Pilate, if thou shouldest have had power over me, if it were not given thee: this is spoken for two respects: First, because all superior power is of God: Next, in this respect because when a man hath gotten power over others, he can do nothing to them, nor stir an hair of their head, but by the providence of God: Pilate was ignorant of both these, he believed he had his power of Caesar only, but Christ lets him know that there was one higher than Caesar, from whom he had his power: he was ignorant of God's providence, he uttered him to be a blasphemer of God: & therefore the Lord hearing this blasphemer, albeit He held His tongue before, now He speaks when He hears His Father dishonored: for all His suffering was for the honor of His Father: therefore He will now reprove Pilate : how far are we from thus doing, we are clean contrary to this: the very silliest of us all, if we hear anything tending to our own reproach, then there is such anger in us, that we cannot be pacified: but who is angry to hear God dishonored: Where shall the Lord find a zealous man in this Land, few in Court, or Council hath that zeal: they who are greatest blasphemers, & greatest enemies to God, by conuoyes are most advanced: the zeal of God is out of the hearts of men for the most part so that by all appearance, certainly a judgment shall light upon this Nation, for albeit we were created & redeemed for God's glory, yet we have no care of it, all that is away: wherefore serves our creation, it had been better we had never been created, if we set not our selves to glorify Him. Yet to weigh the words better, we see this plainly, albeit a man be in the hands of a superior power, whether he be an innocent man, or wicked, yet he is in the hands of God: & there is not a King in the world that is able to open his mouth against a man, but by the special dispensation of God: so that the life, or the death of the man hangeth not so much on the sentence of the King, as it doth on the decree of God, the life of man hanges more on that decree of His, than all the decrees of Kings. There is great blindness and beastliness in us, that we see not that providence: therefore now and then the Lord will let men see, and feel, that the life and death of men hanges not so much on the sentence and decree of the Prince▪ as on that eternal decree & sentence of God. 1. Sam. Chap. 14. When Saul had given out the sentence that Jonathan should die, & that for breaking of an unlawful law, it lay not in his hands to slay him: & then in Chap. 15 when he ordained that Agag should live, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Samuel, and hewed him with a sword. The Lord will let us see, that the sentence of Kings makes not a man to die, or live, but His eternal decree. This is not to be passed by: Jesus warneth Pilate of two things: First, that he hath his authority not of Caesar, He sends him to the heavens above Caesars throne, to God's Throne: Next, whatsoever he did in his office and authority, he did it by the dispensation of God. So we have first this lesson: to wit, it appertaineth unto Princes to know, that the authority which they have, it is of GOD: Monarchs should understand, that they have that power of GOD, and so should inferior Magistrates, how beit they should acknowledge the superior. Knowe ye not howe Nabuchadonezer learned, that all the power was of God, he was sent forth like a beast, to live seuē years among the beasts, to learn this lesson, that all the power he had was of God, Dan. 4. Next learn, howbeit Princes have gotten that power of God, yet God will not denude Himself of power over them: but He so rules them by His providence, that they cannot stir without His will. Then Princes should look to God, seeing they can do nothing without His blessed providence, Esa • . 10. When Assur boasted, that he had done all things by his own hands, & his own wisdom, y ^e Lord is more angry at him for not acknowledging of his power to be from God in that persecution, than He is for the persecution it self. He pronounces the sentence against Him, What art thou but an axe or a saw, in the hands of the sawer ? It is a vain thing for a king, to ascribe power to himself, & not to God: woe is him! it is a sore thing to match with God. Then again, when Jesus was in the hands of Pilate, denied He the power of Pilate ? No, He acknowledges his power, but He acknowledged it was of God, and therefore He willingly submits Himself unto it. Wherefore, all subjects should learn this lesson: When they look to their Princes, or to their superiors, not to look so much to the man as to God, who hath armed him with that power: he is foolish that thinks not that the power y ^t the Magistrate or Prince hath got̄, is of God: & this should be the ground of obedience, whē I see the image of God in him, whē I see him armed with y ^e power of God, I ought to obey him for the conscience of God. Then a game: mark in Jesus Christ, when Pilate the earthly Judge hath to do with Him, He looks not so much to Pilate, as to His Father. Jesus Christ all this time when He is pulled here and there, sets not His eye so much upon men, as upon His Father, and upon His providence. This teaches a lesson unto all men, but chiefly to them who fall into the hands of men of authority and power. They ought not so much to set their eyes upon this or that man, as upon God and acknowledge, albeit it were in the midst of all torments, it is not man that deals with me, it is not so much any person deals with me, as it is my God. The King hath not an hand to move, or a word to speak against me, if my God give it not to him: he who is in the hands of men, and looks not to this, is worse than a beast. This is a chief point, whereby thou glorifiest God, to acknowledge His providence, in suffering or in torment▪ none can have consolation, but he who seeth this, there is the matter of consolation, and patience in torments, to see, that when he is in the hands of a Tyrant, he is in the hands of a mercifulll Father, and to say, Albeit these torments be sore and grievous, and albeit men deal with me, it is my Father that deals with me in mercy. Let thee be torn and rent, yet acknowledge this, thou shalt find joy that shall exceed all thy torments: Look to the Martyrs, So, Brethren, it is no small comfort to a man, for to set his eyes always upon God, and especially when he is into the hands of a Judge or Tyrant. Now thus far the Lord hath given an answer to Pilate: and hath challenged the glory of that Majesty. Would to God, we could learn that lesson, to defend the glory of God, which is blasphemed in this world. Come to the other part it is in respect of the High Priests: they were the instruments of God, working by his providence, to put Christ in his hands: Pilate, thou gloriest over me, but woe is to them who have put me into thine hands. Woe is to them who put an innocent man in the hands of a Tyrant. Mark this: There is nothing spoken of Pilate, that he sinned, albeit he sinned, but He speaks of the sins of the Jews, and of the High Priests, this lets us see, that albeit Pilate sinned, yet they sinned more, and their damnation is greater than his: he that begins mischief, the wrath of God shall especially overtake him, and if there were no more but the example of Judas, it may tell us this, that Judas was the first that began this work, Judas put Him first in the hands of the High Priest: On whom strikes the wrath first? What befell to Judas? Whilst the Lord Jesus is so handled, the traitor Judas is put to the torture, and the Lord rents the soul of him in pieces: the miserable Catiue to be free of that torture, he hangs himself: Did the wrath of God light first upon Judas, who was the first traitor: the wrath of God lights first upon the traitors, yet the Jews are sleeping, they thought they were free of judgment, but still the wrath prosecutes them to induration. Think ye that these traitors are free of wrath, No, no, the dolour and vengeance in its own time shall overtake them, and they shall not have a word to speak. The Papists, when they have caught a Christian, who confesseth Jesus Christ, when they have tried Him, they will put Him into the hands of the Emperor, or King of Spain, they will wash their hands as clean of the blood of the innocent, and who took his life, but the King of Spain ? O! but the wrath of GOD persecutes them, and all the blood of the innocent lies upon them, because they delivered them into their hands to be tormented by them. The judgment of that Antichrist, and of that accursed crew, shall be heavier than the judgment of the Kings, who execute their malice. I denounce this IN THE NAME OF GOD: and therefore, let every man and woman beware that they be not partakers in the murder of the innocent: yea, if the Hangman know that he is innocent, (albeit he thinks howsoever the matter goes, he is free) let him not touch him. Read ye not in the History of the three Children, Sidrach, Mesach, and Abednego, who being taken and casten into the hot fiery furnace at the commandment of Nebuchadnezzar the King, that the men that cast them into the furnace were slain with the flame of the fire? Yea, if it were but in a thought, take heed thou consent not to the death of the innocent.

Now to ende in a word: Ye see here, when Jesus speaks of His Father, and of His doings, He blames Him not, but He speaks in all submission of Him: but when He speaks of the Jews, who were instruments of this work of God: He rebukes them shamefullie, and imputes sin unto them. This is a wonder, and yet it is the work of God, and they are instruments ruled by God: yet the Lord is Holy, and they are unholy and wicked, Act. chap. 2. verse 23. They crucified Him with wicked ha • des : now the Lord was clean, and the Jews hands were unholy. Howe was this? The cause was, because in all this doing there was not such a thing as that any of these wicked instruments looked unto God: they are satisfying the affection of their hearts, and drinking up the innocent blood maliciously. Mark this: Whatsoever thou doest in this world, whether thou goest out or in, eatest or drinkest, set always thine eyes upon the Lord, and do it all to His pleasure, and say with thyself, I do this to pleasure and to glorify thee, O Lord, And I advertise thee, that albeit thou doest any thing agreeable in it self to the will of GOD, yet if thine heart be not set upon GOD in the doing, that work is unholy in thine hand. There is nothing to sanctify thy soul, if thine eye be not set upon GOD: for when the eye of the soul is set upon the LORD, there cometh light down from Him, that sanctifieth the heart. And this is it in a word that I would say: Be never at the ende of an evil thing: if thy conscience tell thee in thine ear, that thou art at an evil turn, do it not: I appeal you, when ye do anything in secret, if your conscience will not say, O catiue, that which thou doest will bring thee to destruction? Manie men in this Lande, think themselves never well, but when they are at an evil turn: But I forewarn thee, as thou wouldest be safe, and find mercy at that Great day, to hold thine hands clean from all evil turns: and chiefly, from the blood of the innocent. Whatsoever thou doest, look that thou have a warrande of that revealed will of GOD. And think it not enough to be an executer of the decree of GOD: but see thou be assured of this revealed will. And yet more: Be not an Hypocrite in thy doing, but do all things with sincerity, and not for man's cause, but for GOD'S cause, that thou mayest be partaker of that everlasting glory with JESUS: To whom, with the Father, and the Holy Ghoste, be all Praise, Honor, and Glory, both now, and forever, AMEN.

THE ELEVENTH LECTURE, OF THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

Y EE have heard (Brethren) that in this whole History of the suffering of JESUS CHRIST, under Pontius Pilate, the Roman Deputy, we might clearly see a continual strife and debate betwixt the Judge Pilate, and the accusers, Pilate ever striving to get Jesus, that just one, and that innocent (for his conscience told him that He was innocent) set at liberty: The accusers on the other part, strive to blot out the conscience of Pilate, and to get Jesus crucified: and as we have found this debate in the whole History before, so also in these words which we have read, we find the same strife: And, if Pilate before was earnest to get Jesus set loose, he is far more earnest now than ever he was: and with all his might he seeks to get Him set at liberty: but look howe earnest Pilate is to have Him loosed, the High Priests and the Jews are as earnest to have Him crucified: In ende, as we shall hear, the victory inclines to the accusers: Pilate gives it over, and sits down to condemn the innocent.

Now to come to the words, they are plain, and offer very plain and easy doctrine, therefore we shall be also plain by God's grace. It is said concerning Pilate, that from that time when he had heard these last words of Jesus, accusing Him for that blasphemy against His Father, then he took a greater fear, and from that time he studied more and more to absolve Jesus. Brethren, we see here thorough this whole History, that the more Pilate hears of Jesus, and the more that Jesus insistes with him, continually the conscience is the more wakened: and the more that it is wakened, the more earnestly strives he to get Him set at liberty. So it is a wonder, to see an Ethnic, without God, to have such a conscience of the innocence of Jesus: and then, that such a man should labor to get Him loose. I know not if many of our Judges nowadays, will have such a conscience, and would be so earnest to have the innocent set at liberty. So when I look to the vigilantnesse of his conscience, I am compelled to say, that this man had a special grace in this point: for one of the best blessings of a judge, who sits on life and death, is to have a vigilant conscience: By the contrary, a Judge wanting conscience of right and wrong, of all men he is the moste accursed. Then, Brethren, if ye will look to this matter narrowly, ye shall say, that Pilate had a great vigilantnesse in his conscience: but alas, he falls at the last: for certainly, this conscience had been a blessing, if he had obeyed this counsel of the conscience: but because he falls in the ende, and obeys not his conscience, that which was given for a blessing, becomes a cursing unto him. If God give thee a blessing, as a vigilant conscience, if thou abuse it, and refuse to hear thy conscience, the blessing sh • ll turn to a curse, and that conscience, which was a counselor, becomes a sore tormenter, and vrges thee to put hand into thine own soul, and tear it in pieces. Pilate's conscience so judged and tormented him, till he was fain to put hand in himself, that was his ende. Now, what do Christ's accusers? look how b • sie Pilate can be to get the innocent set at liberty, as earnest are they to get Him crucified: and now they begin to handle Pilate more sharply than before. The greatest arguments they used before was taken from a crime laid to the charge of Jesus, from Jesus treason against Caesar the Emperor, and from His blasphemy against God. Now they leave off such accusation, and they lay treason to Pilate, & accuse him of treason against his Master Caesar, If thou lettest this man loose, thou art no friend to thy Master Caesar, thou wilt endanger thyself, and make thyself guilty of treason: and more, this man will pull the Crown from Caesar's head: so if thou let such a man loose, thou shalt be guilty of treason as well as he, and thou shalt be the friend of the enemies of Caesar : The effect of the accusation is this, They accuse Pilate of treason against Caesa • : now Pilate heard not the like of this all the day before: and as he studies to keep a good consci • nce towards the innocent JESUS, so the temptation gro • es on. Now, it is not possible to keep a good conscience without temptation both inwardly and outwardly, and aye the better conscience, the greater temptation, and the last the worst. The Devil and his imps begins softly with • lluring but in ende, if thou yieldest not they will threaten thee, & say, Thou shalt either loose thy conscience, or else thy life. Then ye shall mark what is the forest temptation that the devil & evil men c • n use against men who have a conscience, Either do or die, as though one took a dagger, and held it to thy breast, and said, Do, or die, either renounce thy conscience, or die: there is a sore temptation: but to whom is this a grievous temptation? even to such a man as Pilate was, whose God was Caesar, a man whose Heaven was in the honor of this world, a man who saw no better life than this present life. And mark the craft of Satan and his instruments: when they go to tempt, there is not a mediciner who can apply their medicine better than they: ere they tempt, they will see the quality of the person. So that if they find a man only worldly hearted without God, without hope of life, as Pilate was, then they can well bring against him temptations from worldly things, if thou wilt not do it, thou shalt loose the world, and thyself. But if thou do as I bid thee do, thou shalt have the world. By worldly things he will allure the natural man: and by the loss of them, he will terrify him, and make him to yield. This is our lesson. Let never any man again after Pilate trust to a natural conscience, except he find the conscience propped up by faith, and with better things, and higher things, than the things of this world: and if this conscience be backed with hope of that life, it will be a wonder to see howe a man will stand to the ende: No Crown, but to him who stands to the ende. He who is so backed, he will stand against the Devil, and he will say, I care not for this life, when the Devil tempts him, if I loose this life, I shall get a better, if I loose the king. I shall see a more glorious king, if I loose this world, I shall find a better: happy is that man, who hath his conscience backed with faith in Jesus Christ, and hath a sight of Heaven, and of God: It is only this man and woman that can stand in temptations against the Devil, and the world.

Now let us see the effect: Alas, this assault was sore to Pilate : we shall see how by little & little he looses his conscience, & inclines to pronounce y ^e sentence of damnation against the innocent: as soon as he hears these words, he is astonished, and in all hast he brings forth Jesus, and comes out in sight of the whole people, and sits down in his tribunal: he calls it The Pavement, in Hebrew GABBATHA: we call it an high seat or loft where the Judge sat: The time is noted when he goes to that woeful judgment, to wit, when as the Jews were in a preparation to the Passover : the hour is noted. The sixth hour, which in our account is the twelft hour: the Lord Jesus was condemned, and delivered to the men of war. I need not to speak of the calculation of the Jews ; they divide the day and the night into twelve hours, six hours before noon, and six after noon. The time and the place is so particularly noted, that we should give greater credit to the History. But to come to y ^e matter: Ye see clearly, that this last temptation had the greatest force, & astonished Pilate, and that conscience that had stood so long, it began to sails him, and he begins to decline. Then Brethren, note the force of such temptations, what force they have in respect of natural men: It is impossible for a man, who hath nothing but nature, without any portion of grace in him, to abide the force of such a temptation: When he is straited with these, either to loose conscience, or else to loose honor, riches, life, &c. & so to die the death, it is impossible for him to keep a natural conscience, & he will think that man to be a wise man, who will redeame his life by the loss of his conscience, & will think him a fool, who will lay down his life ere he want his conscience. Whereto should we insist in this point? O fool! what is thy life when thou hast lost sense & conscience? the senses, whereby men properly live, are not so much these outward senses, as tasting, touching, seeing, hearing, & smelling, as the fealing of that inward conscience: So if once thou loose that inward feeling, thou art no better than a beast, for they have all these outward senses. What better art thou than dead? No, the carrion is not so dead as thou, whē thou art past feeling: but yet there is worse: well were it for a senseless man to live in security, that that conscience should sleep: but mark that same conscience y ^t before was a coūseller, telling thee what was right & wrong, what thou shouldest do, and what thou shouldest not do, (it is the faithfullest counselor that a man can have, for it will counsel thee night & day to do good, & leave evil) after once thou hast hardened thine heart against conscience, suppose thou lay it asleep, and pass thy time, yet it will not sleep forever: I forewarn all that have a sleeping conscience, that it shall not sleep aye, but it shall come with the terriblest face that ever was, ere all be done. The face of the Burrio was never so terrible as thy conscience, when it comes again to tear thee, rent thee, and draw in pieces thy miserable soul. Howbeit wicked mē for a while will be busy, playing, riding, and running, to get the tormenter at rest: yet I tell thee, that if the LORD have not mercy upon thee, it shall waken so, that it shall never sleep again, & never let thee rest. Of all the torments in the world, the worst is the torment of the conscience, driving thee before the terrible tribunal, to cling in thy soul, and dry it up with the fire of the wrath of God: No peace for the wicked▪ sleep on as they will, they shall be wakened. Now, Brethren, beside the force of this temptation, there is an inward malice of the heart against the conscience: Certainly, a conscience in a natural man is good, and it is a remnent of grace after the fall, but there is as evil a thing that dwelleth in thine heart, since that fall, & that is a bitterness & malice of thine heart, there is such a gall of bitterness, that if there were no more to slay them, it is enough. It is not this outward temptation only, that draws Pilate so far back, but also the malice of the heart: when the conscience sounded in his ear, and said, Pilate do not this, the malice of the heart carried him against conscience. I say again, albeit that there were nothing without thee to move thee, there is too much within thee. These men who run headlong unto blood, to wrack religion, and their country, think ye not, but they have aduertisment in the mean time, by their conscience, and they know that they do wrong: But, alas, such is the gall of bitterness, such is the malice of their heart, against conscience that it caries them as mad men with a fury, over the belly of their conscience. Now, Brethren, this is well to be marked, When Pilate is set down in His tribunal, albeit he be carried away by his conscience, will ye look, ye shall see a privy battle between the spunke of the conscience he had, and the malice of the heart. When he sits down, he hath a doubt in his heart, that conscience draws him back, that he dare not at the first pronounce the sentence, but he says, Behold your King. He says scornfully of His Kingdom, yet he meaneth in his heart, to have Him loose: as if he had said: Is this the man? Alas, he is little likely to be a King, a poor miserable silly poor man: this is his meaning, that he might move them to let Him live: So, as I marked before: the force of the temptation outward, and of the inward malice of the heart against the conscience. So I cannot pass by this, but in these words, I must mark the striving of the poor conscience, albeit it be once dumb, yet it will come again & say, O miserable man, thou art gone too far in this evil action, repent, As the natural conscience is a continual torture, so it will cleave unto him, & will not leave him. Brethren, as the conscience is an admonisher, so it cleaveth fast, and no man will get it extinguished, albeit the loune will strive to shake it off, yet it will stick to him, and whisper again to him: but after it be once changed from an admonisher to a tormentor, when thou hast tempted it, if it stacke to thee before it shall stick an hundredth times sorer, and shall fasten it self in thy miserable soul; so that if thou wouldest hang thyself to escape, yet the torment shall never die out. Well shake on, and contemn her, she shall come, and be the terriblest sight that ever was: and, if thou g • ttest no mercy, she shall be thine everlasting tormentor in the Hell forever and ever. Thus far for Pilate's part.

Now we come to the Jews : They would have nothing but the death of Jesus, and that a most ignominious death: they seeing Pilate yet striving, howbeit they had his head down, (for now they had him at the downfall and swerving from conscience) they had him down with mightier force than before, and they double their temptation: they speak no more modestly, but for speaking they shout in his ear, that he cannot hear one thing or other, & double the shoutings & cryings. Away with him, away with him, Crucify him, crucify him. Take heed to this: if once the devil have got̄ thy head down, that thou sweruest, then he will come with a double force & he will cry & deaffen thine head: & howbeit the conscience would cry to thee, he will make thee so dashed, y ^t thou canst not hear the conscience. Ye know (2. Chron. chap. 28 ) concerning the idolaters who took their sons & burnt thē quick in a valley near Ierusa • ē. whē the children wept, they caused timbrels to sound, that they might not hear y ^t pitiful voice: So it is y ^t whē the devil hath got̄ thine head once down he shall make it so dumpish, & so dash thee with double forces that he will make thy conscience to have no place: therefore, let every man with all his main fore resist, & let no tētation sunder thee from thy conscience: for once down, & aye down: when a man once stumbles on the head of a bank, he will never stay til he go over the mountain: close once the ear of the conscience, and the devil will deaffen thee, & shout so in thine ear, that thou shalt not hear again a word of thy conscience: there is none of us▪ but we may find this by experience. Now come to Pilate : whē they shout & cry, he says, Shall I crucify your king ? yet he gives not over, he ha • h a doubt in the heart, and a strange fighting: as he would say, Call ye it a well favored thing that I should crucify your king? this he spake somewhat scornfully, half in jest, and half in earnest. This is a voice of the conscience, but of weak and decaying conscience, he speaks doubtfully now by an interrogation putting it in their option: now the conscience is drawing its last breath, & after that speaks not a word. There are two voices in the conscience: one voice that will say resolutely, I will not do evil, I will not do against my conscience for all the world: that is a token of a strong conscience: The other is, which will say doubtfully, Shall I do this or not? that is a weak conscience, when a man will say, Shall I slay? shall I strike? I will say, that man hath done with his conscience. The voice of a strong conscience will say, I will do this, if God will give me grace, and for the world I will not do evil. Come to their part again, We have none other king but Caesar. Alas! woe woe to them that renounce such a King: He, and Caesar might both have been their king: Caesar was but His lieuetennant: and the wickedest men that now most repine against Him, shall confess Him once to be their king. Alas, Caesar is casten in the poor man's teeth, because he had none other God: and all the care he had, was to pleasure Caesar. But mark the hypocrisy of the Jews : they say, they have no king but Caesar : but loved the Jews Caesar? No, there was nothing y ^t they would fainer have been quite of, than of him, yet they pretend the authority of Caesar to slay the poor man's conscience, & to crucify Jesus Christ. This is hypocrisy, they loved not, y ^e king, for they who loves not God, love not the King, nor the Church. Look the form of Hypocrites: Papistry is but Hypocrisy: the Pope is an Hypocrite, and all that rabble, haters of God, of Caesar, and of the king: they desire no king, but the king of Spain, because he is their Burrio: and, if he would refuse to be their Hangman, they would hate him as they do others. They pretend the authority of Caesar to slay Christ, when they would have the king slain, and they will pretend God and religion, to murder the king of France : Fie upon these lownes, let never king credit them, woe shall be to him. What do our men pretend? Religion. Our Earls pretend Religion, and Reformation. What is this? a pretence to destroy Religion and the King: Shame and confusion shall light on all, and first on them, if they get their intention. The Lord give every man and woman grace to take heed, that they have no meddling with such men, who under the pretence of Religion seek to spoil Religion, the king, and the Country for Christ's sake: To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be all Praise, Honor, and Glory, both now and evermore: AMEN.

THE TWELFTH LECTURE. OF THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

W EE have heard (Brethren) that Pilate the Roman Governor hath striven very long against the importunity and obstinacy of the Jews and High Priests, to get the Lord Jesus, whom his conscience told him was innocent, set loose and at liberty, but all in vain: for they are as earnest to have Him condemned, as Pilate was to have Him absolved. At the last, when they could prevail nothing at the hands of Pilate, by any delation, or point of inditement against Jesus, whether treason against Caesar, or blasphemy against GOD, they come more roundly to the matter, and come to the accusation of Pilate, & lay treason against him, If thou let this man go (say they) thou art not Caesar's friend : This is the greatest temptation that ever Pilate got, he had no God but Caesar, he sought for no honor but in this world, he saw no life but this life: therefore, hearing treason laid to his charge he begins to faint & fail, and then quickly he enters into judgment, and cometh out, and bringeth out Jesus, and cometh to his tribunal, in a place called the Pavement, an open place, and there sitteth down to give judgment against the innocent: yet he hath a doubt in conscience: yea, when he is running to pronounce sentence of damnation, he says, Behold your King, to move them yet to suffer the innocent to escape, but he prevails not: for once getting Him under, Priests and people begin to shout in the ear of the miserable man, so that he could not hear his conscience crying, Jesus is innocent yet for all this, yet he hath a doubt & stir in his conscience, and says, Shall I crucify your King. They answer, We have no King but Caesar : Woe to them that made such change, and they find it in experience. Now, brethren, John in his Gospel, Chap. 19. verse 16 : he subjoins that Pilate delivered Jesus in the hands of the men of war, to be crucified, & that they received Him, and led Him to the place of execution, But Matthew, as ye heard read, reports of some things that interueened & there are three things in special (as he records) that passed before the leading of Jesus to the place of execution: The first thing, Pilate by a ceremony of washing his hands, cleanses him of the innocent blood: and as he disburthens himself, so he burthenes the Jews, as guilty of the most innocent blood, that ever was, or shall be shed: And they are more glad to take on the burden, than he is to lay it over on them: for with their own tongue they bound the blood of the innocent on their own back, saying, His blood be on us, and on our children : The second thing that Matthew rehearses, is, after that he hath exonered himself, as he thought (a vain thought▪ he was never quite of it, nor never shall be) when he thinks he is exonered, then he goes quickly to work, then he begins to serve the foul and cruel appetite of the Jews, he lets loose Barabbas, a foul murderer: Then as Luke, marks, he gives out the sentence of condemnation against the innocent, then he takes Him, and scourges Him the second time, and lastly, he puts Him in the hands of the Burrio, this is the second thing: yet there is one third thing: when they get Him, they lead Him not incontin • nt out of the Portes, to that filthy place of execution: but to satisfy the maliciousness of their hearts, they led Him to the common Hall again, and there mis-use the Lord of glory. When all this was done, they lead Him out to the place of execution.

We shall speak of these things according to the rehearsal of Matthew : As for the first, Matthew says that, When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing at their hands, but that more tumult was made, he cries for water, and washes his hands, and makes a protestation, I am innocent of the blood of this Just man: And as he protests that he is clean, he turns it over upon the Jews, saying, See ye to it : ye shall give an account for this days work, it shall be the dearest work that ever ye wrought: They say, Let His blood be on us, and on our children. First, we shall mark somewhat on the part of Pilate, Secondly, on the part of the High Priests, and the rest of the Jews. The History is very plain. This miserable man Pilate hath fought on a reasonable space: yea, a long time for the Lord Jesus Christ, against the obstinacy of the Jews, at the last, when he is charged as guilty of treason, when he sees, he cannot prevail, and finds him so straited with so great incommodities, he is compelled to yield, and he thinks that this necessity should excuse him for his part well eneugh. Brethren, this is the lesson: Men commonly, and especially, such as Pilate was: men without God, natural men, that see not another life, that see not another world, they will strive, and they will strive wonderfully through the instinct of nature, to keep a good conscience: but at the last if they be importunately straited with great incommodity, and fear of dangers, they will yield and give over. Alas, nature, and all the benefits thereof is but a weak ground, at the last they will yield: and that good conscience that they contended to keep they bid farewell, and at the last they will yield to a mischief: and when they have done, they will think that necessity, wherewith they were straited: that importunity of men that compelled them, will excuse them for their doing sufficiently: they will think, that albeit they put to their hand, to do the most wicked action in the world, that that necessity will disburthen them: This is the judgment of natural men: But this is as true: What ever he or she be that perseueres not to the end, shall never get the crown. Take the sentence: Albeit thou hast begun well, if thou go • st not on to the end, thou shalt nor get the crown of glory, and the Lord shall never account of thy former well doing, more than if thou hadst never done a good action. Indeed, I grant, that necessity which is without the consent & forces & compelles men against their wills: As for example: When our bodies moved with external force and violence, without consent, or voluntary moving of the members thereof hurteth another: I say, that necessity excuseth a man, but as for that necessity, which for fear of inconveniences and great dangers to follow, makes a man consent to an evil action, it excuseth not. Some will say, I was sore straitted, and I behooved to do, or die, I strove so long as I might: and I saw I could not escape, if I had not done it: But I say, that kind of necessity, and come • ulsion, th • t draws on an evil action upon thy conscience, shall neu • r excuse thee albeit all the King • of y ^e world should threaten thee, & terrify thee with the fear of torture, & if thou once consentest, all that shall never excuse thee: No, if we once consent to an evil action, which may hurt the conscience, we should rather suffer to be beheaded or hanged, & die ten thousand deaths. The Lord of life, can and will give thee life, if thou diest in his fear: but miserable shall that life be, that thou shalt live, when thou hast done against the Lord, and a good conscience. Pilate calleth for water and washeth his hands : then mark what he says, I am innocent of the blood of this just man: See ye to it. Well, is this out of his own mouth: both the speaking and doing of Pilate testifieth, that Jesus was innocent: he confesseth, that he was going to condemn an innocent man: so I see, that the conscience of the innocence of Christ, never leaves Pilate : I doubt not, but he would gladly have wanted it. It is a marvel, that during all the time of the suffering of Jesus Christ, the Lord will have the innocence of His dear Son to appear in the beginning, in the mids, and in the ending thereof. All the time of His accusation, Pilate preaches His innocence, when it cometh to condemnation, the Judge both by word and deed testifies that He was innocent: it is not a common person, that protestes this but the Judge himself: then again, look to the end of this work, when Jesus is lifted on the cross, then the Father frō the heaven testifies, that He was innocent, then the Centurion with the burrio & the men of war, seeing the wonders, are compelled to say, this is the Son of God, and the people seeing this, go home thumping on their breasts, & say, alas: & so they had cause: so the innocence of Jesus Christ is declared all this whole time out of the mouth of the Judge himself, & of many others. What means all this? No doubt but y ^e Father herein had respect to y ^e honor of His Son, for indeed the most honorable death, is to die as an innocent, and if thou wouldest die honourably, die not as a guilty person, but die innocently: And this was to aggreadge Pilate's damnation, and the damnation of the Jews : But brethren, there is another cause that pertains more to us, and serves more to our comfort, even, that we should have faith in this Mediator the Lord Jesus: for except He had died as an innocent, I would never lay my sin on Him: the thing that makes me to believe, that He hath made satisfaction, is because He suffered innocently, and had no sin in Himself, Heb. 7.26. and as Peter says, He bare our sinnnes, because I am persuaded, He bare my sins upon Him, I believe in Him: so this redounds to the comfort of the members of the Church of God. Yet I see more here, Pilate he hath not only the conscience of the innocence of Jesus, but this same very conscience, it makes him to turn to the Jews, & to summond them before that terrible tribunal. See ye to it, says he, I tell you, ye will give an account of this days work: so this is a citation of the Jews before that terrible tribunal, and they have found it, and shall find it: No, Brethren, take heed, thou shalt never want summonding: let Kings, and them who are in authority, cease to summound thee, let thine own conscience never speak a word to thee, nor charge thee, the Lord shall not let thee be without a citation: if thy conscience will not waken thee, He will waken the conscience of a Turk or a Pagan, and he shall charge thee to appear before that terrible Tribunal. Thou thinkest when thou sleepest, and thy conscience accuses thee not, that all is well, no, the Lord shall raise up the conscience of a Pagan to summound thee, and I say to thee, albeit thou thinkest thou art at rest, when thy conscience is sleeping & wilt spend thy time, thou wilt eat & drink be merry & take thy pastime, yet it is one of the most heaviest judgments y ^t ever God laid on any: & then, whē He hath raised the conscience of another man to warn thee, it is a sore warning that if thou sleep on, and repent not▪ thou shalt be wakened, that thou shalt not get leisure to say, God be merciful to me. This world knows not what it is doing. Yet mark further, Notwithstanding all this conscience of y ^e innocence of Jesus: Alas, I s • e not this, that his own conscience accuses him, or says to him, Woe to thee, Pilate, thou art going an evil way, thou wilt make thyself guilty of that innocent blood, that will burden thee everlastingly: his conscience is busier to accuse the Jews as himself: he should not be so busy to accuse the Jews, as himself: for if his conscience had accused himself sharply, had he ever said, Thus I am clean of the blood of this just & innocent one ? By the contrary, it had urged out another confession & sentence, There is nothing but damnation for me, for the condemning of the innocent. What should have been the cause of this? He was bu • a silly natural man, & his conscience was wrong informed concerning that thing: & he thought himself well enough, seeing he had stri • ē so long, & yielded thorough necessity. All this sluggishness of his conscience came of a wrong information, he knew no better. The more thou knowest, the better informed conscience thou hast. Strive ay to get knowledge. Alas, that blindness that man lies in by nature, that makes thee think, that sin is no sin: that is deceit. Strive ay to get a clear mind, & a well informed conscience, whereof thou should excuse thee, and whereof to accuse thee. Get this out of the word of God, which is the only rule of our life & of all our actions, from that light that comes from Heaven, for the light of nature will beguile thee, and it will say, that thou art blessed, when the malediction of God is upon thee, and it will say, Thou doest well, when thou doest evil: Therefore, get that light that comes from Heaven to make thee to see. This for Pilate's part. Now let us come to the part of the Jews : Their part is far worse. This is a great deformity, when these who have the Oracles of God, are warned by Turks and Pagans : This is to turn the up-side of the world down. Look howe ready Pilate is to lay off the burden from himself upon the Jews ; as ready are they to lay it both upon their own backs, and upon their posterity. If this exoneration of himself when he disburthens himself of the blood of Jesus, testifies, that he had a conscience of His blood that was innocent: It must follow, if the Jews were ready to take on this burden, then they had no sight of His innocence, neither were they touched therewith in conscience: and therefore, like blinded bodies, seeing nothing, with an imprecation, they translate the burden from Pilate, and lay it upon themselves. Ignorance is ever temerarious: the blinder the body is, the more rashly will it endanger it self. A blind body without knowledge, will run it self speedily & without remorse into Hell, and will take on such a burden that it shall never be able to lay it off again. What means all this running so speedily in wicked courses, but that men want conscience, and their own corruption hath blindfolded them: Is there any man that hath light, that will run on to their death, to dash themselves on the sword to devour them? It is a miserable thing to want the light of the soul: so the Jews saw not with whom they had to do they had no conscience, as Pilate had, and therefore being through malice and appetite of revenge, incensed against the Lord Jesus: blindfolded, they regard not what imprecations they utter, for they saw not Hell: or else if these Jews had a light of conscience, they did so rashly against Jesus with knowledge, which is most likely: thē it follows, that they were marvelous malicious: as ignorance is hardie, so is maliciousness more hardie, albeit such a man should see, yet against the light, his malice will make him to run over the belly of his conscience. Ye know the voices of profane men, Ere I were not revenged of him, I had rather be in Hell: this cometh of maliciousness, to get the soul spirit within him satisfied: but if thou felt one twitch of Hell, thou wouldest recant these words: for it would cause thee shout, and squeele hiddeously: & I incline to this judgment, that this wicked action is more to be ascribed to malice than ignorance: the Jews and the High Priests had the word of God, and the Prophets, whereby they might have known the Messias. When I read of the Prophets that speak of induration in the time of Jesus Christ, I say, it hath come of an hardness and induration of heart: And when I see the words of the Apostles, that say, O stiff necked people, I think that they put their own fingers in their eyes, that they should not see. The Lord save us from maliciousness, and namely from such maliciousness as is not without knowledge: when a man sees, and will pull out his eyes. Compare the Jews with Pilate : now Pilate sinneth, he k • lled himself in the end, and the Lord made his own hands to be his burrio▪ No doubt, he sinned, who can excuse him? he sinned maliciously he had a conscience, & goes against it maliciously. But Brethren, to speak the truth, it was not so much malice that pushed him forward, as great infirmity and fear for first, he fears to be accused of treason against Caesar : it was no marvel to such a man to fear, who had no God, but Caesar : • hen he saw appearance of great tumult to rise amongst the Jews. What necessity was laid on them to have the blood of the innocent So I see nothing in them but malice, if it were but in this respect, that the sin of the Jews weigheth down the sin of Pilate, and their damnation is a thousand times greater. What had this man? He had nothing but nature: The contrauension of the light of nature will never make up the sin against the Holy Ghost, which gets no mercy: but come to them. They had the light of nature, and the light that cometh from Heaven: they had the word of GOD amongst them, they contraueened an heavenly light that came down from Heaven, and was wrought into their hearts by the Spirit. Stephen says in the 7. Chapter, and 51. verse of the Acts of the Apostles, Ye have always resisted the Holy Ghost, as did your fathers, so do you, that is not a natural light but a light that came from above. There were some of these men who sinned maliciously against the Holy Spirit. What marvel was it then, that they got no grace to repent: for of all sins the sin against the Holy Spirit, is the most dangerous: they that commit this sin, have no grace to repent, & therefore no mercy to them, the Lord strikes their souls with impenitence: so that soul is everlastingly hardened: and so being stricken with impenitence they got never grace to say, God be merciful to me. Seeing then their sin against Christ, was so great, seeing it was not so much of ignorance, as of malice: it was not only against the light of nature, but also against the illumination of the Holy Spirit: what marvel was it, that such a terrible Judgment overtook them, as never lighted on any nation. The Jews found this innocent blood in experience laid to their charge. Joseph that saw all these things with his eyes, writeth, what heavy vengeance and judgment fell upon Jerusalem & the Jews : for he testifies, that there was slain at the siege of Jerusalem eleven hundredth thousand, beside ninety thousand that were tane captives: thereafter the town was lamentably destroyed and sacked. So the blood of the innocent never left them: & these y ^t remain, yet feel the judgment of the blood of the innocent: for according as they desired y ^t His blood should be upon them & their posterity: so the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost 1. Thess: 2.16. It is a wonder that a Jew should be safe, & if ye hear of a Jew to be converted, think it to be a great mercy. Now to apply this shortly to us, if it were but this terrible example of vengeance which followed the Jews, it should terrify to the end of the world, all souls to take on the blood of the innocent, take on one, & take on all: if thou takest on the blood of one servant of God, thou shalt take on all the innocent blood from Abel, to that man whom thou hast slain. Fye upon foul butchers who are more meet to be butchers dogs, than men. What care they to wash their hands in innocent blood. But I say to thee, if ever thou gettest grace it is a wonder: fie upon the butchers of Scotland : No, if the Lord would waken thy conscience to torment thee, & present to thee the sight of Him of whose blood thou hast shed, it would be so terrible, that it would make thee to curse the time that ever thou did it, & one day fearfully without comfort it will torment thee: when will these bloody men leave off y ^e sheading of innocent blood, in this bloody & barbarous nation: o • all nations it is the most barbarous and bloody. Above all things dip not thine hands in the blood of Jesus Christ. Thou who sheadest innocent blood, & is a persecutor of the servants of Jesus Christ, and who resistest the truth, thou wilt say, If thou hadst been in Christ's days, thou wouldst not have cōscented to His death, but thou who sayest so, if thou hadst fallen in these days, thou hadst maliciously been partaker of the death of Christ, & hadst put hands in Him, thou wantest nothing but time: I will tell you, who is it that sheds the blood of Jesus Christ, & takes His blood on them, what ever he or she be that will resist this known truth of Jesus Christ, and persecute the professors thereof, I affirm, they are as guilty of the blood of Christ, as the Jews & the High Priests were, and that same blood shall be laid to their charge in the great day of the Lord▪ Read ye not in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Chap. 6. and 10. of them who have repined, & have begun to cast off that heavenly power, & so go like dogs to their vomit, & spues out the light they had received, they are as guilty of the blood of Christ, as Pilate, & trampe the blood of the Covenant under their feet. Woe to them that resist the Gospel, woe to the apostate Lord's of this Land, for thus resisting the light: there is no light but this, to lead thee to heaven. I denounce woe to them if they continue, the treasure of wrath, and woe shall be heaped on them, they shall be as guilty as Judas, or Pilate, or the Jews: hasty & sudden shall be their judgment, except the Lord prevent them with repentance, they & their posterity shall be cursed, & vnderly a terrible vengeance: Woe to their friends, who will join with them: Separate thee frō them, as thou wouldest see salvation: Away out of Babylon. Ye would think this a light word, Let his blood be upon our head : As they wish the blood of the innocent to light on them, so it never leaves them, nor shall never leave so many of them as repented not, the blood of the innocent shall lie upon their backs everlastingly. This should learn us to take good heed to our words: it was but a word to cast off the God of glory, and to take on a Tyrant: They got Caesar to be their King, and he spoiled them: Take good heed to thy words, for thou who usest against thyself imprecations and cursings, and wilt say, God plague me, God's vengeance light upon me, I give my soul to the Devil, if this or that be not. Well, hast thou given thy soul to the Devil, he shall get it: hast thou taken a curse upon thyself, thou shalt be cursed: it is a wonder that the earth should not open to swallow such men. The Lord makes these things to come to pass: now and then He makes the cursed creature that uses such speeches to be a terrible example. And if thou be a profane person, who wilt say, I give my soul to the Devil, I say, and if the Devil get thee not then, and thou be not thrust into Hell, but gettest repentance, it is a wonder. Such is the judgment of God, that oft times He will let no reversion be, except that earnestly thou seek for grace and mercy, the Lord, I say, shall make that word which thou sakest to have no reversion, wilt thou, or wilt thou not: but like as thy foul mouth spake it, so thou shalt be given to the Devil: for there is nothing more effectual to a man's destruction, than the words which proceed out of his own mouth.

Well, Pilate is lying in security, and he thinks himself well enough: when he hath once disburdened himself, he sits down, and gives out sentence, and absolues a seditious vagabonde, He letteth Barabbas loose unto them. Woe to them, who will absolve a seditious lowne, and a murderer. The next thing is more woeful, he begins to give out the sentence against the innocent, he comes on and strikes Him, he scourges Him: this is the seconde time, and when he hath done, he giveth Him into the hands of the Jews, to satisfy their wicked appetite. As long as thou hast a wakened conscience, and so long as it tells thee, This is good, and this is evil, thou wilt not go so boldly and forwardly in evil. (Well is that body who hath a wakened conscience, suppose it terrify thee, and hold thee waking) But after it be once lulled in a sleep and security, then thou runnest on, as the arrow doeth out of the bow, to a mischife: there is nothing to hold thee, but thou runnest swiftly to mischief. Ephes. 4.19. After they once lost feeling, they ran out to all wantonness, committing all uncleanness, with griedinesse. There was never any creature so griedy of anything in the world, as men who live without conscience will be of filthiness. As thou wouldest keep thyself, so keep feeling in thy conscience, & count it more precious than all things in the world. Nothing can guard thy soul from Satan, but the approbation of a feeling conscience. Thou wilt come out with thy Pearls, and with decked clothing: but if thou want this conscience, thou art a preye to the Devil. Fy on these men, who lie in such a senselessness, shame and confusion shall light upon them. Was there ever such a dead and senseless Generation as this? It is a token that Hell is over-taking them, seeing they lie all in such a senseless security. Mark notes a word here that would be considered, Chap. 15. verse. 15. Pilate did this, to gratify an evil people: he would not displease the Jews. This is the common fashion of Princes, to seek to be populare, to seek the favor of the people. Look that a Prince seek not by evil means the favor of the people: for he will hang an innocent man, and let a murderer go free, for the favor of the people: thou buyest it too dear, with the loss of the favor of God. Woe be unto the man, though he were a King, that mischieuously falls abacke from the Truth, and so looses the favor of God, for the favor of Idolaters. But will ye come on yet? Got Pilate the favor of the people? No: they persecuted him to the death, they delated him to the Emperor, and he was banished: and for fear of greater shame, he put hands in himself, and slew himself. Yea, if he were all the kings in the world, who seeks to gratify a wicked people in an evil cause, namely, in Idolatry, and if the LORD have not mercy on him, that same people shall be his destruction. The Lord grant Kings and Princes to see that howbeit they have the favor of the people by unlawful means, and want the favor of God, that all the favor of the people that they can have, without God's favor is nothing: that they may seek God's favor above all things. And the Lord be merciful to our King for Christ's sake: To whom be all Honor and Glory, foreuermore.

THE XIII. LECTURE, OF THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

W EE have heard (Brethren) these days past, the whole accusation of Christ before the Judge, & the Roman Governor Pilate. Last, we came to that woeful sentence of damnation, pronounced against this innocent. Now Jesus being condemned to die, & to die the ignominious death of y ^e Cross; it rests, that we should come to His suffering on the Cross; but before we come to it, we have to speak of these things, namely, which we have read unto you, partly out of MATTHEW, and partly out of LUKE: Then first we have to speak of the delivering of Jesus into the hands of men of war, to be crucified at the pleasure of the Jews ; and howe they received Him: and then we shall see what they do with Him, being received: they bring Him back again being received, to the common Hall, to a secret part thereof, and misuses Him at their pleasure: therefore, we shall come to the leading of Him out: with the Cross, out of the ports of Jerusalem, to that vile place where He should be crucified. We shall speak of the manner of His going out; howe he goes out to suffer the death of the Cross: and last, of two incidentes that fell in by the way, as they were leading Him out: The one howe He met with a man, named SYMON of CYRENE, whom they compelled to help Him to bear His Cross: Another, the multitude that followed Him: and as all Nations resorted to HIERVSALEM at the Passover, they followed Him, and women followed Him weeping, He turns, and answers them, as ye will hear.

It is said then, that Pilate delivered JESUS, when He was condemned, to the Souldioures to be crucified : and it is said of them, that as he delivered the innocent unto them, so they took Him to the common Hall: they are far readier to receive Him, and to crucify Him, than He was to deliver Him. The lesson, Brethren, is very easy, and many experiences teaches it daily: There was never yet a wicked Judge in the world, so ready to deliver the innocent to suffer, or to desire an evil action to be done, as he will find wicked executioners under him, to put his wicked sentence in execution: the good Judges could never find good officers under them so readily to execute an evil action as the wicked Judges find for an evil action.

Saul, when he had Achimeleck, and the Priests of the LORD to slay, he found Doeg the Edomite the knave ready, and he slew fourscore five Priests of the LORD, 1: Sam. 22.18. But David the good King, when he had to do with Joab, who had committed many foul murders, could not put in excution his will, therefore he laments, and says: I am this day weak, and newly annointed King: and these men, the sons of Seruia are too strong for me, me, 2. Sam. 3.38, 39. This is oft seen of good men: that there are very few good counselors in the world, to help a good King in a good action: and where ye shall find one good, ye shall find four evil: Evil men and wicked counselors are very rise: a wicked King shall not want, but shall get moe than he desires: the devil hath many servants in the world, but GOD hath few: Our own Country may speak of the experience of this.

But to go forward: When he hath delivered the innocent Jesus to the soldiers, and they received Him: Take they Him to the place of execution? No, but whilst all was in preparation, whilst the place, and the Cross, was in preparation, and whilst all things were making ready, in the mean time the soldiers, with the malicious Jews could never get their heart satisfied with CHRIST, They bring Him to the common Hall, to the Session house, to a secret part of it, and uses Him more cruelly, than they did before: and there They being gathered, like as many torturers, there is not one of them, but they abuse Him: First, They put a crown of thorns upon His head : This is the second time: Next they take off His own clothes, and clothes Him with Purple, and they put a reed in His hand, and they kneel before Him, and mocks the King of Glory, saying, Hail King of the Jews: Then they take the reed, and strikes Him with it, and in despite spits on His face : When they have done this, they take off that Royal raiment, and lead Him out, to crucify Him. Ye would wonder at this, for a man, though he were never so wicked, a thief and a murderer. yet after he be once condemned, men will give him peace till he die, and men will strive to comfort him before he die against the terroures of death, that he may die in peace: yea, his very enemies will think they have gotten enough, when they have gotten him condemned, and they desire no more: But behold the enemies of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST▪ they can never get their hearts satisfied upon Him, they cannot suffer Him to rest or breathe, their insatiable wrath cannot be satiated. The malice of men against wickedness will ende, but the malice of men against an Innocent, will never ende, and namely against him who suffers for CHRISTES sake: there is no measure of their cruelty, there is nothing that can satiate their bloody hearts: for the children of darkness do deadly hate the children of light: the suffering of the Martyrs hath ever proved this, that the Antichrist could never be satisfied in drinking of their blood. The persecutors of the Truth will never be satiate, there is no satiety of the malice of the haert of y ^e child of darkness against the child of light. If thou hadst slain a man's father, it may be he would have forgiven thee: but and if thou be the child of GOD, and if he be the child of darkness, he will never be satiate, till he get thine heart blood. The IEWES and the Soldiers could never be satiate, till they had gotten the heart blood of the Innocent.

But Brethren, we must look up higher: for it was not so much with these Jews and Soldiers that JESUS hath to do, as with an angry GOD▪ and th • t because He bare the burden of our sins: these torturers were but instruments of that terrible wrath of the Father upon the Son: It was not so much their wrath, as the wrath of the Father that pursued Him so ardently. After He was once delivered into the hands of these Hangmē, wrath begins so to be poured forth on Him frō Heaven, that He got no rest till He was crucified & dead on the cross. It is a terrible thing for a sinner, yea, if he were a king, who is not in Jesus, and partaker of His suffering, to fall into the hands of an angry God and a consuming fire: if thou be out of Christ, thou shalt feel it the terriblest sight that ever was, howbeit wanton men and women make their pastime to anger that great Judge, going to murder, defiling their bodies and souls by harlotry: it may be for a time, that they get rest: but after that once that righteous Judge put hands in thee, I promise thee, that thou shalt never get rest: The very reprobate when they shall see that there is none ende of wrath, shall cry: O Lord, shall never this wrath have an end: if thou goest to Hell, thou shalt find none end of wrath. Now blessed is that sinner that gets grace to have recourse to Jesus Christ, & to lurk under His suffering. When they have used Him so unworthily within the common Hall, and when all is made ready: Then they lead out Jesus, & caries Him out of the Portes of Jerusalem, to an ignominious death: and as they lead Him out: so Jesus Christ goes out willingly to suffer, at the good pleasure of His Father, knowing that now His hour was come. God forbid, but that we should think that Jesus Christ suffered willingly: No, Brethren, in this example of Jesus Christ the innocent: and that His willing going to death, we see, that it is the innocent who go to death willingly, and namely, they who are innocent in the blood of Jesus Christ, that have their conscience sprinkled with the blood of the immaculate Lamb: As for men, who are not cled with this innocence, alas for them, It is not possible, that these can have consolation, or can with gladness offer up their lives: it may be, that some will pretend willingness, but that is but a show: Again, it may be, that there be some senseless bodies, that knows not how terrible death is, and what evil is in it. O! death is terrible for either Heaven or Hell follows on the tail thereof: and wilt thou count little of that port, by the which thou passest from this life to eternity. So, some may be senseless, as a Kow goes to the shambles: and some may have a false conscience: but if thou have not an assurance, that thou art washed with the blood of Jesus Christ, Woe shall come to thee, wrath shall light on thee. There is no consolation in death to any, but to these who die in the innocencencie of Jesus Christ. I mark the manner how He goes out: He goes out, bearing His own Cross : or rather drew it after Him: this was after the manner of the Romans, that the man whom they condemned to die this death, they commanded to bear His Cross, and therefore they were called Furciferi, gallows bearers: now they practice this on the innocent Jesus.

Now to come to it, that falls out whilst He is bearing His Cross. As they are going out, They meet a man by the way whose name was Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, a man in a town of Africa, and the town was called Cyrene, a laborious man, retu • ning from the Country, to Jerusalem, they meet the poor man, and compelles the man to take up the one ende of the Cross Jesus goes before, and he goes behind: they would not have Jesus relieved: No, they pitied Him not, but they would have Him formest in the burden. Think not, Brethren, that this re • ieuing was of any compassion they had to Jesus: No, they had no pity upon Him: but it came to p • sse, because Christ Jesus was faint, weak, and we • ried under the burden: and no wonder, He was a man: He took on our nature, and all the infirmities thereof, that we might be made strong. After that once the Lord had fallen in their hands, He got no rest, He got no sleep that night, He fasted, and His soul was vexed: and then all that night, and all that day following, from the morning to the noon-tide, he got no rest, but was twice scourged, and buffeted: As for the soldiers, they thought themselves too gay: As for the Jews they thought themselves too holy, and in end He was made a curse (but for our cause) And therefore meeting with this Gentile, Simon, they compelled him to help Him. This wants not a Mystery: This Simon was a figure of the Gentiles, and this calling, albeit of compulsion, signifies our calling, being Gentiles, to take up our cross, and follow Jesus out of the ports of Jerusalem. And as the Apostle to the Hebrews Chap, 13. verse 13. says, Go forth of the Ca ••• e bearing His reproach: for here we have no continuing city: but we seek for one to come. As for the Jews, they would neither touch Christ, nor His Cross with their finger, because they judged Him accursed. Indeed, I grant, GOD made Him accursed, but He was made a curse, that we should be the blessing of GOD, through H • m: As Paul says to the Galatians, Chap. 3. verse 13. Wouldest thou know thy felicity in this world, and in the world to come: it stands in joining with that man that was accursed, & whosoever thou be, y ^t shalt not join with this man who is accursed, I give thee this doom, Cursed shalt thou be everlastingly, vengeance & malediction shall lie on thine head everlastingly. We are Gentiles, not Jews : let us thē with this Simon of Cyrene take up y ^e Cross of Christ, & follow Him out of the ports of Jerusalem, to bear His shame, y ^t we may be partakers of His glory: if thou be not partaker of His ignominy and shame, I denounce to thee, thou shalt not be partaker of His glory: thou who wast not humbled with Christ, thou shalt never be exalted with Him: this for the first incident. There is another thing that falls out, whereof we read in the 23 Chapter Luke, as He goes to the place of execution, it is said, that the multitude followed Him : This multitude was not only of the Jews, but also of all Nations who resorted to Jerusalem, at the time of the Passover. Now this multitude followed to see what should become of Him, as men who are inclined to see wonders. S • e on what mind thou followest a man to death, these spectacles are spectacles of thy misery: they follow to see the fashion: but surely this following of Christ, and this going of Christ to His suffering with such a multitude, learneth us a lesson: it pleased the Father, that Jesus Christ should suffer an open shame: He would not have Him stolen down, or secretly executed in the night: He would have Him accused publicly before the great Judge, who represented Caesars person: Then as He went out, He would have all the world to see Him: and then He would have Him mounted up, and nailed upon the Cross in the face of the world: in a word, the Father would have the Son who became surety for us, to die; and not only to die, but also to be pined: and not only pined, but also to be pined shamefully. There is not a sin in the world, (let wanton men take their pastime in sin, albeit it were done never so secretly, go to thy chamber & do it, do it in the night, go to holes and most secret places and commit wickedness) but the end thereof, how secret so ever it was, shall be with open shame: I denounce against secret sins against God, thy secret sins shall bring an open shame to thee, if thou have not recourse to the shame of Jesus: either of necessity thou must suffer in thy person eternally, and drink out the full cup of the wrath of God: or else, thou must have recourse to the shame of Jesus Christ: and this is our comfort, that we have: Wilt thou first of all repent thee (an impenitent man will never get the cloak of Christ's righteousness to cover his shame) and turn and believe in Jesus Christ: Wilt thou have recourse to Him, and loure under His Passion: I promise thee, that thou shalt never come to an open shame: it my be that men come to an open shame for sin in this world, but in the world to come, I promise thee, thou shalt not suffer any shame, in that day thy sins shall not come to the light, neither man nor Angel shall see them. But if thou have not recourse to Jesus, thou shalt be roo • ed out like a thief out of a hoale, before millions of millions of Angels, and before all the world, and the secrets of thine heart shall be revealed, and heaps of the wrath of God, shall be poured on thy miserable head: Hell stands not only in pain, but in shame and confusion: thou shalt go down to Hell with a fearful shout, from the sight of this world, at that judgment.

Now to come to these women: amongst the rest there follows Him certain women out of Jerusalem : there is a great difference between them and the multitude: women oft times shames men. The soldiers pities Him not, their pleasure is in His misery: we see not here, that any of the multitude mourns, but it is said, that the women of Jerusalem that followed Him, wept for Him. This was done of the Father, to testify His innocence, the Father at all times, will have the innocence of His Son witnessed: during the time of His accusation, the Judge preached His innocence: & as he was giving out the sentence against Him: he both by deed, in washing of his hands, & word, testifies His innocence: And now whilst He goes out, He makes these women to bewail Him. No question all this was done by the Lord's providence, Jesus the innocent He was lamented for. Wilt thou be innocent like to Him, thou shalt not want bewailing: ye see this, if he be a thief, and he be penitent, and have recourse to Jesus, and seek to be innocent with that innocence of Jesus Christ, men will pity him: but especially in that great day, if thou appearest innocent in the innocence of Jesus Christ, thou shalt get such pitying of God, and of all the Angels, that thou shalt never die, but shalt be received to glory: and if thou appearest before Him without this innocence, thou shalt not be bewailed: none shall pity thee, neither God, nor Angel, but thou shalt go to destruction: and when thou art going to Hell, thy father nor thy mother shall not weep nor lament for it, but shall rejoice & approve God's judgment. Ye see then, howe good a thing it is to be innocent in the innocence of Jesus Christ, albeit we be not innocent, but guilty in ourselves. When Christ hears the lamentation and mourning of the women, He looks over His shoulder, And beholding them, He stands, and speaks, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but for yourselves, and for your children : and He gives the reason wherefore they should weep so, because of that fierce & terrible judgment which should over-take Jerusalem, and all for this innocent blood, and for the refusal of that innocent One: For behold, the days will come (says He) when men will say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps that never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us: and to the hills, Couer us. And vn • er the destruction of Jerusalem, He understands & adumbrates that terrible judgment & wrath in the latter day, & that great destruction that remains for the wicked: & He confirms this judgment which He threatens, by an argument taken from the greatest to the smallest, If they do so to a griene tree, what shall they do to a withered? what shall they do to you? By the green tree He means Himself, who in Himself was fresh, sappie, green, and fruitful, albeit for us He was like a dry tree, because He was guilty for us. And by the dry tree He means us, who are unfruitful in our selves, and meet for nothing, but for confusion, to be casten into the fire. Mark here shortly of this: It is the sense of misery that makes any body to weep: No doubt when one weeps sore, the heart hath a sense of misery: and this sense is either of a man's own misery, or for a sympathy of the misery of another. They who have a sense of the misery of others, they will mourn. I see few of this sort in these days. There are few now that will weep for the misery of another. All sympathy is out of the world, and the pleasure of men is in the pleasure of others. Indeed I think that Jesus condemned not this compassion. Certainly, compassion upon the estate of another is good. Away with a pitiless heart, for it hath not felt the mercy of God, and bowels of His compassion. But this is Christ's will, that the ground of their lamētation should not be so much His suffering for them as the sense of their own misery & sin, which brought Him to such a misery. The Lord would have the women considering the greatness of their own misery, which made Christ for their cause to be so miserable: that should have been chiefly the cause of their mourning: that should have been the cause of their dolour: for as John says out of Zechariah, They shall see Him whom they pierced. Our sins have pierced Him. The godly in the latter day, when they shall see Him, they shall mourn. It was not so much the Soldiers that pierced Him, as thy sins. Have not therefore thine eye so much on Pilate, Herod, or the Jews, or on the men of war, or Hang-man, as on thyself, and on thine own sins: for it was thy sins that pierced Him thorough: and in the latter day, when the godly shall see Him, whom they have pierced, they shall weep. Turn thine eyes on thyself, and let the ground of thy weeping be for thine own sin, that pierced the Innocent.

There is another thing here worthy to be considered: I see it is a good thing to be in heaviness: and ye see that the LORD speaks nothing to the men of war, nor to any others in the way, but only to the poor women who were weeping: He comforts them, and instructes them, He leads them to the ground of their weeping, to the ende that they should repent, and have recourse unto Him. The best estate of men and women, is to be sad in heart, and mourning, either for their own misery, or the misery of others: for the Lord says, Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. And, GOD dwells in a coutrite heart, ESAY. CHAP. 66. VERS. 2. PSAL. 51. VERS. 19. Thou who laughest, thou needest no comfort. Thou who art mourning for thy sins, and the sins of the world, the Lord He shall speak to thee, and give thee consolation with His own mouth. Nothing becometh a Christian better, than sadness, and to have his sins before his eyes, and to be sad both at noon and at Even: for all this joy that a true Christian hath, is sadness. Awaye with wantonness, mocking, and jesting, there is no true joy there: and the Lord uses not to comfort such, nor speak to such, for they need it not. I fore-warn thee, that thou shalt never get the taste of that joy, but in tears: and then when the heart is broken, and casten down, then the LORD is mighty to raise thee up, and to comfort thee. The Lord therefore give us grace, when we look to the death and passion of CHRIST, that we may get a sense of our own misery: and that we may be in sadness, and mourn, that our sins pierced the sides of the innocent, who was the GOD of Glory: and that we may have recourse to this suffering, and get grace in our LORD: To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be all Honor, Praise, and Glory, forever and ever: AMEN.

THE XIV. LECTURE, OF THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

N Owe ye have heard (Brethren) of the accusation of CHRIST before the Judge Pontius Pilate, and of His condemnation out of the mouth of the Judge Pilate, and then we heard that after the sentence of damnation was pronounced, he delivered Him into the hands of the Jews to be crucified, they take Him, and first of all they lead Him in again to a moste secret part of the Common Hall, and there they handled Him more freely, yea, more vilely than ever before, seeing He was a condemned man: and when they had used whatsoever indignity they pleased against Him, they lead Him to the place where He should be executed. In the History we have marked three or four things that fell out in the way: First, how the Lord is bearing His own Cross to the place of execution: Next, He being wearied under the burden, one Simon of Cyrene coming from the Country to the town, is compelled to take up one ende of the Cross, to help him: So Jesus goes before, and bears the one end of the Cross, Simon of Cyrene follows, bearing the other end thereof: The third thing: the multitude follows, men of all countries, that were convened, and come out of Jerusalem, at such a solemn time at the Passover: Amongst the rest, there were women of Jerusalem, better than the rest of the multitude, who followed him, and wept for him. We have heard what answer the Lord gave them, and how he instructed them in the right cause of their weeping. Now the last thing that is marked: it is this, that we have read out of the Gospel of Luke, there were led out two thieves with him. Then in this days exercise, we shall hear of these points: The first, concerning the two thieves that were led out with him: The next is concerning the place: The third is concerning the sour & bitter drink that they gave him to drink: The fourth, concerning the act of the suffering, and fifthly, concerning the hour.

To return to the first: As he goes out to the place where he should suffer: There are led out with Him two thieves, to suffer with him in that same place: Jesus is led out to the place of execution like a thief, being innocent, and led out with thieves to suffer with thieves. Amongst all the rest of the things that Jesus Christ suffered, beside the pain that he suffered in soul and body, he suffered extreme shame, as we say, he was shamed and shent: I shown to you, that shame followed always upon sin. Jesus Christ took upon him the sins of the world, and therefore he behooved to suffer shame before the world. The Lord Jesus Christ was ignominious in respect of the painful and ignominious death: for he was mounted up upon the Cross, in presence of them all: and in respect of the multitude, all the world was gazing upon him: and in this respect, when he goes out to suffer, he is counted a thief among the thieves, and the Lord was also ignominious in respect of the place.

Brethren, in this matter, I look not so much to the Jews, or to the soldiers, as I look to his Father in heaven: who was the disposer of this whole work. There was nothing done, but that which GOD the Father had decreed to be done, and what He does concerning His Son, He does it moste justly: for JESUS became surety for the sins of the world, and He bare the burden not only of murder and theft: but of all the sins of the Elect. And as He goes out with the two Thieues, He bare the burden of one of them, and relieved him of his sins: and the one of them that same night supped with Him in Paradise: Therefore, say I, whatsoever was the part of the Jews or of the Souldioures▪ yet the doing of the FATHER to the SONNE was moste just. And when we read of this, let us bless the FATHER of JESUS CHRIST, for we have good cause so to do: For in this justice He shows great mercy towards us: and, if He had not done this, woeful and miserable had the estate of man been. Now I come to the place, which in Hebrew is called GOLGOTHA, that is, a place of dead men's skulles, or brain pannes. This place was without the ports of the Town of Jerusalem. And no question Jesus like an unworthy reprobate was carried out of the ports of Jerusalem to suffer, and this was figured under the Law. The beasts that were to be offered were carried out of the camps of the people, and there were burnt, and afterwards their blood was carried into the Sanctuary, to be a typical propitiation for the sins of the people, and the people were sprinkled therewith: Even so, JESUS CHRIST, that eternal Sacrifice, was carried out like an outcast out of the ports of the Town, to suffer that ignominious death, that when He had suffered He might enter in with His precious blood into that Heauenlie Sanctuary for the sins of the world by that eternal propitiation, HEBR. CHAP. XIII. VERS. 11. and 12. Concerning the name of the place wherefore it is so called, there is great controversy and doubting: Some think that it was so named, because the skull (or brain panne) of ADAM was delued up out of that same place where the Cross was set, and where JESUS suffered. But I count this but a vain fable of the vain Papists, for their Legēds are full of such like fables. And again, some think that it was so named, because in this place were used to be casten heaps of skulles, and dead men's bones to be kept, which use may be seen in sundry partes, and this is more likely. And last, others think that it was so named, in respect of the figure & shape of the place: It was a round knoll, like a man's head, rising up, and round at the height; also, it was high, that these who were executed might be a spectacle to the people to be wondered at, and therefore in respect of the shape, it was called Caluarie, that is, the skull of a dead man: and those who have resorted to those parts, they report this day, that the same place is a round knolle like a dead man's skull, where the Lord Jesus was crucified beside Jerusalem. But how ever it be, this is most certain, that this place was shameful and ignominious: and the innocent is conveyed to that place where the murderers used to be execute. No doubt, it was vile, and stinked, yet it hindered not that sweet savor to ascend to the Father, through His death, and the more ignominious that the death was, the glory and triumph was the greater, and the more stinking that the place was, the more sweetly savored He to the Father, His sacrifice had a most sweet smell in the nosthirles of the Father. This is the thing that I mark: I see, that these Jews who persecuted the Lord of glory to the death, cannot be satisfied, and the hatred against the innocent is endless. They are not content that He die a shameful death: but they will have Him to die a shameful death in a shameful place, and they will have Him conuoyed and led out like a thief. No, brethren, the hatred of the world against the children of the light, hath none ende: they hated the Lord first: The Lord Jesus is the light of the world, and ever from that day the children of darkness shall never cease to hate the children of light: as soon so ever as a man shall profess that he appertains to Jesus Christ, at that same moment, the world, and the children of darkness shall begin to hate them, and to persecute them: As the rage of the Jews was unquenchable against Christ, so it was after His passion and ascension against all Christians. Brethren, in this matter, we must pass above the malice of the Jews, and behold the counsel of God, and see, that all this doing comes from Heaven, for the Father doth it, albeit He use the ministry of these Hangmen: I see this, He lays on shame upon His own Son: and not only shame, but He heaps shame upon shame upon Him: He will first have Him shamed in respect of the death of the Cross: then He will have the world to gaze upon Him: and next, in respect of the two thieves that were led out with Him: and then in respect of the place: He will have Him to suffer shame in all things, in presence of the world: So that one would wonder, that the Father would pursue the Son with such extremity of wrath: it is no small thing to take on the burden of sin. O sinful soul! run under sin as thou wilt, yet one day thou shalt find it the heaviest burden that ever was. If the surety suffered such a pain, and such a burden, what shall become of thee? If thou by thyself shalt undertake such an heavy burthē of wrath for thy sins? But Brethren, the thing that appertains to us concerning the place of execution is this: All this process & judgment is a type of that great & terrible judgment of the world in that Great day: & ye shall see that visible judgment to be like this judgment that was holden on Jesus. He suffers like a reprobate, and is judged, and that same thing that Jesus suffered temporally, when the great Judge shall sit, the reprobate shall suffer eternally. Then take heed: It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of that living God, who is a consuming fire. Look to it as ye will, for whosoever he be that shall not be saved in Jesus in that day, beside all the shame that they shall bear, the very place wherein they shall suffer shall add something to their shame: As their soul and body shall be ignominious; so the place shall be stinking: the very place shall heap shame after shame: let Hell be where it will, it is the most shameful and ignominious place that ever was: and thou shalt be shamed and shent whosoever shall be casten into it. And by the contrary, in that Great day of Judgment, they who shall be saved in this JESUS, as they shall be glorious many ways: so even in respect of the place, they shall be glorious. That Heauenlie Jerusalem is the pleasandest place that ever was, and those that shall come to Heaven, beside all that glory that they shall have therein, they shall have glory in the very place: for Christ suffered in a place, foul, vile and ignominious, that they might dwell forever most glorious in that glorious place, that Heauenlie Paradise.

Now to come to the third, which is that drink which is propined unto CHRIST when He comes to that place: no question He was very thirsty: beside the pain, He had an extreme thirst: and being thirsty, He desired to drink : He was a wearied man, for He was holden all the whole night over without either meat, drink, or sleep, yea, and all the next day also, beside the fear of death: and therefore, it was no marvel that He desired to drink. And MATTHEW says, that they gave Him Vinegar to drink, mixed with Gall : Then, both sour and bitter was His drink. Now it is true that Saint MARKE says, that it was Wine mixed with Myrrh: All is alike: for Myrrh hath the bitterness of the gall. There are sundry opinions about this drink, which they gave Him: Some thinks that this was a delicious drink, and that it was carried there, and offered by the women who followed Him weeping: to the end He might feel the less pain, so long as He vnderlay so longsome and cruel death. There are others who think that this drink served to hasten the death: because the death was painful, for they count Myrrh to be of this force, that it will cast out blood at any wound. So when the LORD had drunk, they thought, that the blood should have springed out at the wounds, and should have most hastily procured His death.

But I leave these opinions, and I think, that this was no delicious drink: and I think again, that this drink was not given to hasten His death: & I think that this sour & bitter drink, was offered in derision and scorn by the Jews, and soldiers, who had no pity nor compassion upon Him, and that of the bitter malice of their hearts they offered it to Him. No mercy for Christ now, but all extremity: and to think so, I am partly moved by that Prophecy which is contained in the 62. Psalm, and 22. verse, wherein the LORD is brought in, complaining and saying, In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink : and partly, by the History following, wherein it is said, Then they brought Him in derision a sponge with vinegar, and put it to His mouth : and this His drink is to be counted a part of His Passion. Of this we have this lesson, always keeping this ground, That this Judgment is a type of the latter Judgment. Amongst all the pains that they shall suffer, who shall not be found in JESUS CHRIST, they shall thirst to death, both of soul and body, as the LORD thirsted, who was counted as a reprobate: so the reprobate shall thirst exceedingly: And as the LORD got not so much as a drink of water, to quench His thirst, no more shalt thou.

As the rich Glutton, when he was in Hell, could not get one drop of water to cool his tongue, that was so sore burning in torment: no more shalt thou be quenched of that eternal wrath: for sin brings the most terrible drowght and hotnesse in the soul and body that ever was. Thou shalt drink the cup of the bitter wrath of God forever & ever▪ Blessed are they who hunger & thirstes for righteousness they shall be filled, says Christ. They who shall be saved in Jesus Christ, shall never thirst, for they shall have in their bellies the fountain of living water. Jesus Christ, when this drink is propined, He tastes it, and would have no more of it, because as Jesus Christ bare the nature of man, so He had this natural taste, and nature abhorred this drink: And albeit that patiently He suffered all injuries of others: yet He would not use violence against nature to His own self: let one suffer violence of others, but do no violence to thine own self: Yet we see, that albeit He knew well eneugh, both the bitterness and sourness of it, yet He tasted it: This learns us, that there was no bitterness nor sowrnesse but the LORD would taste it, that thou shouldest not only taste, but also drink, yea quaffe all delicious and sweet drink evermore: yea, not only of the water of life, but even the delicious drink of this world, for refreshment of our body. Then when thou art drinking a sweet drink, remember that Jesus Christ drank a bitter drink, that thou shouldest drink a sweet drink. Otherwise, I tell thee, drink on, and pamper thy belly as thou wilt, thy sweet drink shall become a bitter curse unto thee.

Now we come to the very action of crucifying: He is thirsty, He cannot get the thirst quenched: He must suffer the death with an extreme thirst: there is not a thief, but he will get a drink. The men of war come to the execution: and first, they stripped the LORD of glory: They take His garments off Him : So the LORD, before He was mounted upon the Cross, He was stripped naked, and then being stark naked, they mount and spread out that glorious body on the Cross, And nails Him with nails : and this is complained of before: They pierced through mine hands and my feet, Psalm 22.17. And now being nailed on the Cross, it cometh to pass, as Paul says in the Epistle to the Galatians, Chap. 3. verse 13, 14: He is become a curse for us, that we should become the blessing of God in Him : Not that Jesus began then to be accursed of the Father, when He hang upon the Cross: No, from the time of His conception: even all the time that He was in the world: As our sins were laid upon Him, so the curse of God was on Him, pursuing our sin: All these three and thirty years that He lived in the world, the curse of God goes never off Him: for the curse of God never leaves sin. A wicked man will seem to be blessed, and to prosper, and who will sit at such ease as he will, play him, and bless himself in his own heart, but when he comes to a miserable ende, and dies a miserable death, when the miserable death appears, then the world sees, that that man was cursed. It appeared not that Jesus Christ was cursed, till He was dying, and going to be nailed on the Cross, then all the world sees that He is cursed, beside all the things that sin brings on a man to: it shall bring thee to a shameful death: and if thou be not found in Jesus Christ, and be not covered with His Cross, then thou shalt die in the ende a cursed death: although thou be in thy bed, and thy Wife, thy friends, and all thy children about thee, the death that thou shalt die, shall be accursed. Blessed are they who die in the Lord: Cursed are they who die not in the Lord, let them be hanged, beheaded, or die in their bed, terrible shall be that death that follows after this death: The death that He died, was a sore & odious kind of death, to a man to be taken quick, and nailed quick on the Cross: and no doubt, He hang for the space of three hours: so as y ^e death of those who are not in Christ, is accursed, so it is sore: He suffered not only this pain in body, No, the chief torment was in y ^e soul, & it was tormented with that bitter sense of the wrath of the Father. It is not a death of the body that sin brings on, it brings an extreme bitter pain to the soul. The Lord dies not in a moment, he is dying, and not dead, a viue image of the death of hell: thou shalt die in the pain of hell, and never get an end. Those who die in Christ, die what death they will, be they beheaded, or hanged, or drawn in raxes, or burnt, they shall never die a cursed death: their death is a sweet death, and all the joys that ever was, shall issue of their death: It must be so, What makes a cursed death but sin: and if thou be in Him, as JESUS was crucified: so thy sin is nailed upon His back: and therefore being taken away, what must follow, but that thou must be glorified.

And either thou shalt be crucified thyself, No, not in the Earth, but in the Hells everlastingly: or else thou must have thy sins crucified on the Cross of JESUS CHRIST, and be partaker of his death: and therefore, if any of us would die a blessed death (it is certain, that we must die) let us see whether our sin was crucified with Christ, or not: Shall I have no warrand of the death of sin in me, and that I was crucified with JESUS CHRIST, and am freed of all pain eternally, thorough His Cross? Will ye that I shall tell you, howe ye shall get the certainty of this? Look if thou findest a continual death of sin, look if thou findest this regeneration and a new life, and love of GOD and a delight to serve Him in some measure, then assure thyself, that thy sin was crucified on the Cross with JESUS CHRIST: and, if thou livest in wantonness, and gettest no mortification, thou shalt be crucified in the Hell, yea, though thou were a King. Our lords and gentlemen will pass their time, but I denounce, albeit thou be an Emperor, thou shalt be tormented, and consumed away by that eternal wrath of GOD in Hell. Go on thy ways. O, the world is sleeping! Shall they never know what they are adoing? What are these oppressors doing? these murderers doing? these adulterers and fornicators doing? Is there any care of Heaven in them? Is Heaven or Hell but tales? No, no: it shall be the terriblest sight that ever thou saw. It is not as men say, to wit, Hell is but a boggarde to scar children only: No, thy miserable soul shall find in woeful experience the dolour and woe of that place.

Now it restes, that I speak about the hour in the which He was crucified. Onelie Saint MARKE calls it, About the third hour. Then apparentlie, the LORD JESUS was nailed on the Cross betwixt eleven and twelve of the clock: And a little before twelve He was mounted up upon the Cross: for betwixt the sentence of Condemnation and Execution, there passed not an hour: For there was a malicious earnestness to hasten Him to the Cross, neither would they give Him leisure to draw His breath. This lets us see the fearcenesse of the wrath of the Father when He judges sin. After that He was once condemned, He got no rest, but was hastened to the place of Execution, to suffer pain and shame. Look still to the ground. This judgment is the type of the latter judgment: if the sentence of condemnation be passed, immediately thou shalt be pulled away (look to it as ye will) to everlasting torment. Therefore, blessed is that soul that hath part of the suffering of JESUS CHRIST. To Him, therefore, who once was ignominious, and now is glorious, be all Honor for evermore: AMEN.

THE XV. LECTURE, OF THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

I N these days past (beloved in the LORD JESUS) we have brought this History of the Passion of Jesus Christ, to the very act it self, to the crucifying of Him upon the Cross. The last day we spake something of His crucifying, and last we spake of the hour of the day, in the which He was crucified: MARKE names it to have been about the third hour of the day, which according to our reckoning, and our fashion of dividing of the day, fell about the twelfth hour of the day: which manifestes a very hasty dispatch and a short space betwixt the doom, and the execution: yea, all this matter was very hastilie dispatched, for He was taken in the night, in the which He got no rest, but was hurried first to Annas, and from him to Caiaphas Hall, and then before Pilate the Roman Judge, and there before him condemned: So that He is taken in the night, and the next day before twelve a clock He is crucified. In the night He is taken, and brought before the Judge: The accusation passeth: The doom is given: and He is crucified on the morrow following before twelve of the clock. Now to pass by the malice of the Jews, and their earnestness to have the Lord put to death, we shall mark, that all this judgment we may see the swiftness of the wrath of the Father, which pursued the Son, because He bare the sins of the world. It lets us see plainly that the judgment that shall be in the latter day, to the which this is proportionate (it is a type of the latter judgment) that judgment also, I say shall pass over swiftlie, and the reprobate in that judgment, when the Lord is once entered into judgment, shall not get leave nor leisure to draw their breath, till they be castē into Hel. And after that the terrible Judge shall once enter into accompt with them, and give out that sentence, Depart from me ye cursed of my Father, with the Devil and his angelles, immediately those damned souls shall be hurled to Hell. If the wrath was so swift upon the Son of God Himself, what shall be the swiftness of the wrath upon the reprobate in that Great day? Then come to the Text which we have read, and to go forwards to speak of the things and circumstances that fell out in the time that the Lord did hang quick nailed upon the Cross: for, as I have already declared, He hung the • pace of three hours quick, nailed upon the Cross, ere He gave up the ghost. The first thing we have to speak of, is concerning the two Thieues that were crucified with Him, the one at the one hand, and the other at the other hand. Next, we shall speak of that prayer that Jesus conceived whilst He was hanging on the Cross before His enemies. And thirdly, we shall speak of that title and inscription that Pilate commanded to be fixed on the Cross: to wit, JESUS of Nazareth, the King of the Jews : and this contained the crime and cause of His suffering. Last, we shall speak of the dividing of His garments, and howe they cast lots on His coat. All these heads are plain, & they offer plain doctrine. Then to come to the first; It is said, that They crucified with him two thieves, two vagabondes, two throat-cutters, and they crucified the one of them at his right hand, and the other at his left hand. And He hung on the Cross in the midst between them both. They crucify not the Lord Jesus Himself alone but betwixt two Thieues: and not at the side, but one of them at each side, and Him in the midst: g • uing out thereby to be understood by all the world, who looked on Him, (and there was an huge multitude of Jews, Romans, and Gentiles, looking on) that of all Malefactors He was the greatest. Brethren, I see this thorough all the History of the Passion of Jesus Christ, ever His dolour enc • easses, till it come to the ende & to the height. And I see this, that as His pain grows continually, So shame is heaped on His head continually: and whilst He is hanging on the Cross, at the same time the greatest shame is heaped on His head: for He hanges upon the Tree, betwixt the evil doers▪ as Prince of all evil doers in the world. To let you see, that as the pain of the reprobate shall be extreme; so the sh • me and confusion that they shall suffer in Hell, shall pass all measure. In this circumstance, as in all the rest, I look not so much to the Jews, and to their malice, as I look to His Father in Heaven, to His wrath, and to His Justice: it is He who is the chief worker of all these things. All the • e men, Pilate, Herod, the men of war, and the High Priests, they are like as many burrioes to that Judge.

The LORD hanges on the Cross in extreme pain of body and soul: and as He hanges, in extreme pain, so there is extreme shame joined with it. Now, if the shame and pain was extreme, it must follow, that He bare an extreme but then of sin: these go together in GOD'S Justice, extreme burden of sin, extreme pain, and extreme shame: for the Justice of GOD requires, that extreme sin be punished by extreme pain and shame. It is true, the Martyrs suffered greater shame & pain, than ever murderer did, or malefactor: yet it follows not, that their sin was greater than the sin of them who suffers not so great pain. Why? The Martyrs suffered not for sin, Non eo nomine. Never a Martyr suffered for sin, but for the testimony of the same Lord Jesus Christ who suffered for their sin: and therefore in their suffering they had an exceeding great joy, assuring them, that they had a remissiō of their sins in the blood of the Lamb JESUS CHRIST. But JESUS CHRIST suffered for sin Eo nomine : it is one thing to a sinner to suffer, & it is another thing to suffer for sin: No, if the Lord make thee to suffer for the least sin, if it were but for an evil thought, thou shalt feel howe terrible a Judge He is. The LORD suffers, and is shamed for sin: the Lord JESUS suffered extreme shame and pain: therefore the consequent follows, He bare an extreme but then of sin. When I look to this utter shame, as I call to mind all the sins that JESUS suffered for: so chiefly, I look to that high pride of Adam, and of us all in Adam, whereby we aspire to be like to that High and glorious Majesty, that pride, whereby we would have spoiled that great GOD of that honor and glory which was due to Him: Therefore in this utter shame, the Father of Heaven meets, randers and requites that high pride of Adam ▪ and for that He heaps shame on the head of His Son: As thou aspirest to dishonor Him by pride, so He meets thy pride in His dear Son. If thou be not found in JESUS in that great day: the prouder thou be in the world, the greater shall be thy shame, beside that unspeakable torment of soul and body. Now, will ye see in this extreme pain & shame that the Lord suffers, how the wonder of our salvation is wrought: it is so far from that, that it is wrought with a glorious pomp (the Jews would have had this work wrought gloriously, and would have had the Savior a glorious King, and therefore they stumbled at this, at the ignominious Cross of Jesus,) Ye see by the plain contrary, that there cannot be a greater pain nor shame. We are not bought by glory nor pomp: we are redeemed from death and shame, by death and shame: such a redemption cannot stand with His Justice: His Justice requires blood, Heb. 9.22, Noremission of sins without blood, Then everyone of us, who would attain to salvation, we must not look to Heaven first, to get it in JESUS glorified, but we must look to Jerusalem, and to Golgotha : first, To see Him there hanging and crucified: spare not to kiss Him on the Cross, and to bathe thyself in His blood: and if thou takest offense at His Cross, thou shalt never see Him in glory, but to thy shame: No, by the contrary, take on persecution with Him, that in that great day thou mayest be glorified with Him.

To go forward, Luke in his 23. Chapter, verse 34. marks a circumstance which is not marked by the rest, to wit, that JESUS prayed to His Father for His persecutors. This prayer apparantlie hath been either at this time when they were striking the nails thorough Him, or else very soon thereafter: howsoever, He is hanging on the Cross at that time: The words are, Father, forgive them▪ for they know not what they do : 1. Pet. Chap. 2. ver. 23, says of Him: When He was reviled, He reviled not again : He rendered none evil words again, when He suffered, He threatened not again, but committed it to Him who judges righteouslie. When they were nailing Him on the Cross, and scorning Him on it He show not an angry countenance: He committed the vengeance to GOD. In these words, he would let you see, a marvelous meekness and patience in JESUS CHRIST, and therefore by the Prophets He was compared to a Lamb. No, never a Lamb suffered with such mildness, as JESUS did. But now in this History he goes somewhat further: he lets us see, that the LORD IEnot only recompensed evil with evil: but He rewarded good for evil, & whilst they torment Him, he conceives a fervent prayer for them: and this lets us see not only a wonderful patience, but also a great love and pity He bare to His enemies. It is a wonderful thing to see any in torment to be patient toward the tormenter, but it is greater in the torment, both to be patient, & to pray to GOD for him who torments him: and this is the greatest of all, to suffer for the tormenter. This love properly pertain es to JESUS CHRIST only. The Martyrs have prayed for them who persecuted them, as STEVEN did, Act, Chapter 7. verse 60. LORD, lay not this sin to their change : but neither STEVEN, nor any other Martyr in the earth suffered extreme torment for the tormenter. Never a man had such a love, to suffer for his tormenter: No, this love is proper only to JESUS CHRIST: and in the Scripture it is ascribed unto JESUS CHRIST, that He died for His enemies His tormenters. These last words of that place of Peter, where he says, He committed vengeance to Him who judges righteously, are worthy of consideration: for there he will let us see the ground of patience in suffering, His eye was on His Father, and He saw his Father to be a just Judge, and to take vengeance on them who persecuted them. Wouldest thou be patient in suffering, go not to revenge, but put the revenge in the hand of the Judge: except a man have this consideration, it is impossible for him to suffer a wrong patiently. And it is as true, that these men of this Lande, who in no measure are patient, but are ay revenging: those who will do two wrongs for one, (he will glory that he hath slain two for one, and he will brag of his foul murder: and say, I have one slain, he hath two, he hath better than his own) It is impossible, I say, that these men cannot have GOD before their eyes, they look not to GOD, because in suffering injuries, they leave not the revenge to GOD, and so their damnation shall not be so much for the wrongs, as because they usurped the office of the Judge, and gave him not vengeance to whom it belongeth. Some of you may ask, how can this be, that Peter says. The LORD committed vengeance to His Father, stand with this, that Luke says, He prayed for them ? howe can these two stand? To commit the vengeance to God, and to pray for thine enemies? I answer, These things are different, To commit vengeance to GOD, to commit a wicked man to his own Judge, and to beg a vengeance to a wicked man: JESUS gave them over to their own Judge, and gave the Judgment to GOD: he begged not vengeance on them: he prays for them to his Father, that he would forgive them. To speak my mind here: This Prayer that the LORD made upon the Cross, I take it not so much to be for the malicious Scribes, Pharisees, and Priests, who did this, not so much of ignorance, as of malice: For in the 17. Chapter and 9. verse he says, I pray not for the world, but for them that thou hast given me : As for the poor multitude of the Jews, and the men of war, and for the ignorant Gentiles, who were there. The effect declares the force and power of this Prayer, for by one preaching of Peter, there were three thousand souls converted of the enemies of Christ, Act. Chapter 2. verse 41. No question this hasty conversion of so many, came of the effectualness of the Prayer that he made to the Father, on the Cross: yea, by appearance the force of that Prayer uttered it self then, when the multitude came from the spectacle of the Cross home again, knocking on their breasts. But consider the form of the Prayer, he says, Father, forgive them, the reason is, They know not what they do : But they are silly blinded people, Paul 2. Cor. 2. Chapter verse. 8. says: If they had known what He was, they would not have crucified the LORD of Glory. Ye shall ever mark, Brethren, two series of sinners, and two sorts of sinning. There are some malicious sinners, woe to those. Some are ignorant: some sins of knowledge: yea, the malice of the heart draws them to a mischief: and some because they know no better, being wrong informed. No doubt, many of this multitude thought they were doing good service to GOD: Malice in sinning, makes a man inexcusable, and closes his mouth before that Judge: ye shall see this one day. The malicious sinners, when the sentence shall be pronounced against them, shall not whisper once again: But ignorance, albeit it makes not a man inexcusable (it will never excuse thee before that great Judge, Beguile not thyself, thou shalt not once open thy mouth, and say, LORD, the thing that I did, I did it of ignorance: and therefore I deserved not death) yet it is not so evil as malice: for whereas malice provokes the wrath, and judgment of the Judge: for it is a terrible thing to have an malicious heart, and of set purpose to sin against the Judge. Ignorance will move the Judge to pity and commiseration: and so, ye see, the LORD seeing the poor ignorant multitude He pities them, and as He pities them, so He prays for them: Ignorance moved Him to pity, and to pray for them. In a word: The Christian man that is persecuted wrongfully, either hath to do with malicious men, (we may find this in experience ere we die) who persecute of malice: or with enemies, who are not so much malicious, as ignorant: if he have to do with malicious persons, patience is required: but if he have to do with ignorant bodies, then not only patience is required, but also rueth and love. Wouldest thou have patience? then commit vengeance unto Him who judges justly: for if thou wouldest be patient, look to thy GOD, and say, I commit thee in the hands of the Judge. And, if thou have to do with an ignorant, see that thou be pitiful: look to the ignorance of them that persecute thee; and thou shalt not so soon look to their blindness, but thou shalt not only be patient, but also pitiful, and the ignorant will seem to be miserable, and to be pitied: for this is certain, that the innocent man, who is persecuted, is not so much to be pitied, as he who of blind ignorance persecutes him. Alas! What is to be pitied, but that which procures damnation before GOD? So ignorant blinded bodies are moste to be pitied.

Now consider howe all ranks and sortes of people shame Him: and first Pilate shames Him, and commaundes an inscription and title to be written on the Cross, bearing the crime and cause of His death: It is said, that Pilate the Judge, Writeth a title to be fixed on the Cross: and be writeth it, in Hebrew, and in Grecke, and in Latin, to the ende, that men of all Languages might read it, and understand it, and the effect thereof is this, JESUS of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. This was in Hebrew, in Greek, and in Latin : three Languages, to be read by Hebrews, Grecians, & Romans. There is no question, but this was written according to the fashion of that time: for among the people of GOD, both the judgementes and also the punishments, with inscriptions containing the cause thereof, used to be publicked. And this was a commendable and allowable custom, that when a man was condemned to die, they always used to put up an inscription, containing the crime and cause: to testify, that he was worthily executed. According hereunto they handle the Lord JESUS: for they lead y ^e whole process in the sight of y ^e people, & went not into a corner to judge Him, but in the presence of y ^e whole people, they led Him out of the Portes of Jerusalem, to execute Him. Read of this custom, Josh. Chapter 7. verse 19. Of Achan, who stolle the Babylonians garment, how he was judged of the whole people. Read of that blasphemer, in the wilderness, Levite. 24.23. how before the whole people he was executed publicly. Read of Jonathan, how he was judged and condemned of his father Saul, in the sight of the whole people, 1. Sam. Chapter 14. verse 5. As the Judgment was public, so they used to put an inscription above them, to testify to the people their crime, and the cause of their death, that they died justly. It is no small matter to slay a man, albeit he were the poorest that ever was, and there is not a Prince in the face of the earth, that may slay a man without a good cause: No, not the Emperor hath that power. And as no man should be slain lightly: so if there be a just cause of execution, the man may not be executed privily at the pleasure of the Judge, but if there be good justice, the Judgment must be before the people. The people have their own right and entresse in judgment seats.

Ye know in that great Judgment of the world, which shall be at the latter day, not one shall be judged and condemned without the approbation and consent of the whole Elect, which shall stand round about their Lord. Then, how much more hath the people, at the least the best part, entresse in earthly Judgments, to see good administration of justice, and Judgment, and that the Judge use no Tyrannie. This then was the cause of this Inscription, even that the cause of the death of Jesus should be made manifest to the people, according to common commendable custom. But Pilate had another respect: Pilate did this, not so much, that the people should know the cause of His death: for his conscience told him that He was innocent, as he put it up, to revenge him on the malicious Jews, who compelled him against his heart and conscience to condemn Him. He will have this put up, that their King was hanged, and that they hanged Him with their own hands. But GOD hath His part here, and all was governed by that heavenly Providence, Neither is Pilate, nor the Jews here so much to be looked to, as the dispensation of the Father, As Pilate did it for one ende, so the LORD did it for another ende: Men will do a thing upon an evil intent, GOD will do the same thing by a wicked instrument to His good ende, by His effectual providence He will have this to be put up, to ratify the Heavenly and Spiritual Kingdom of JESUS CHRIST: and He will let them all see, that JESUS is the only King: and inspeciall by this inscription the LORD will have it testified to the world, that as JESUS hung upon the Cross with pain and shame, that so likewise upon the same Cross He triumphed gloriously over His enemies: ere He came to Heaven, on the Cross He got victory, and He triumphed over them all, and led them all captives on the Cross, as it is written to the COLOSS. CHAP. 2. VERS. 15. More than this: The LORD did it to this ende, To fore-shaddow, that the preaching of the Kingdom of JESUS CHRIST, to follow on His Ascension should be to all Nations▪ Kingdoms, and Languages: for immediately after that He passed out of the world, JESUS was proclaimed to all Nations the King of Glory, and continues to this day, and shall be forever. Pilate is a preacher hereof, albeit he have little mind of it: but he was like Caiaphas, who prophesied, that it was expedient, that one should die for the sins of the whole people, CHAP. 11. VERS. 40. And this is done by the special providence of GOD, no doubt. The constancy of Pilate in his sentence and writing, notwithstanding the strong opposition of the Scribes and the High Priests, who desired him to alter and change the title, and for that which was written by Pilate, to wit, This is the King of the Jews, to write, That He said He was the King of the Jews : this declares that it was of the immutable decree of GOD. Pilate had no power to alter one letter of it for his life. GOD led the pene of him so, that he had no power to do otherwise, to testify, that it was of that Eternal decree. And this is that drecree whereof we read, PSAL. 2.7. I will declare the decree, that is, The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, &c. This decree is unchangeable, it must be executed, and it shall last to the ende of the world: And I say, the LORD JESUS shall be King in despite of the IEWES and the High Priests, and all His enemies, and that one day we shall see to the full joy of our hearts: To that Glorious King, with His Father, and the Holy Spirit, be Honor and Glory for evermore, Amen.

THE XVI. LECTURE, OF THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

T HE time that JESUS CHRIST is hanging on the Cross, (Brethren) and whilst He is in extreme pain and torment, those that stand by they set themselves to do Him all the shame they can, to the ende, that in that agony He might have the more annoy and grief. I cannot divide better that shame that they did Him, than from the persons who went about to shame Him: the whole, both Jews and Gentiles, are set to shame Him: And therefore, after He is condemned, they take two Thieues, and they crucify them with Him, the one at the one hand, and the other at the other, and Jesus the Innocent in the midst, as if He had been the greatest of all. Then there is not a rank of persons amongst them, but everyone begins to rail upon Him, and shame Him. And first to begin at Pilate, he begins and shames Him, for he writes an inscription concerning treason against the Majesty of Caesar, and affixes it on the Cross, where He hung, This is the King of the Jews: howbeit to speak the truth, Pilate sought more the shame of the Jews, who by their obstinacy compelled him to give out the sentence of death against the Innocent, than the shame of Jesus Christ: and by the inscription the Lord will have the Jews shamed, because they hanged their King. But we have spoken of Pilate's part the last day: therefore now let us go forward to the partes of all the rest. Then after Pilate, comes in the executioners, who with their hands had nailed Him on the Cross. It appears by the words of John, speaking of the dividing of His garments into four partes, that there were four Executioners: (or Hang-men) So that everyone of them got a part thereof. These in contempt, and in despite of Him, in His face, whilst as He hanges on the Cross, they take His garments, and divide them in four partes, and on his coat they cast lots. Then after the Hang-men, comes the people, and they wag their heads on him, and in despite, and bitterness of heart, they rail on him, and say, Is this the man that said he would destroy the Temple, and build it up again? Is it likely that He can do this, who cannot save Himself from the Cross? Then comes there the Princes of the IEWES, the SCRIBES, the High PRIESTES, and PHARISES, and they taunt Him also, saying, Thou who sauedst others, save thyself. And after them, comes in the men of war, the ROMANE Souldioures, and they begin to rail out also, and They offered him Vinegar to drink, and said, If thou be the King of the IEWES save thyself, and come down from the Cross. And last, one of the Thieues, who was hanged with Him, falls out in railing, If thou be that CHRIST, save thyself and us.

But now we shall speak of everyone of these in particular as the LORD shall give us grace: and first we begin at the part of the Hang-men. Then in His sight, whilst he hanges, they take his garments, (and made four partes of them, that everyone of the men might have a part thereof : and as for his coat, because it had no seam, and was not sowed, but was a woven coat, from the top throughout: therefore, they would not divide it, but would cast lots for it, whose it should be. And all this was done, that that which was prophesied (by David, who was the figure of Christ, Psal. 22.19. ) might be fulfilled, which saith, They divided my garments among them, and on my coat did cast lots.

Now to let you see that these Hangmen did nothing in all this action, but that which from all eternity was appointed to be done in the council of GOD. To examine this fact better: First they do Him wrong in spoiling the LORD JESUS of His own goods: (Howsoever they esteemed of Him, yet He was innocent) Next, they do Him shame, in stripping Him, and setting Him naked upon the Cross, in the sight of all the world. And last of all, they despite Him, and contemn Him, in taking His garments, and parting them in His own presence, where He Himself might behold it. So they did Him wrong, shame, and despite. But Brethren, as in all other circumstances conjoined with the Passion. I look not so much to men, as to the Lord: So here I look not so much to these executioners in parting of these garments, as to that Heauēlie Judge His Father, & to His justice in this matter: for whatsoever be their part, and howe unjust soever they be, that Heavenly Father is just, and that burden of our sin which Jesus Christ took upon Him, deserved all this: as surety for us, He demerited all this.

Now to examine more narrowly everyone of these: to wit, the wrong, shame, and despite, we shall see howe justly all is done: if ye will look to His Father, and first consider the wrong done unto Him, in taking His clothes: He was wearied of His garments, because He was cledde with our sin. Now would to GOD that we could feel in mercy this weight of sin, which our Mediator did bear upon His back for us: for then we would not run on so wantonly as we do. And it tells us this, That a sinner that is not in Jesus Christ, who hath not put off sin, but yet bears the burden of sin, hath no right to wear so much as a moste vile garment, yea, though it were but a bratte of a sack to hide his shame from the sight of the world; let be Golde, Silver, or precious raiment: and if it shall fall out at any time, that he be reaued and spoiled of his clothes, let him take it to be of the just judgment of GOD, whatsoever be man's part therein. And though the Thieues bereave him, yet the GOD of Heaven is just in punishing of him, whatsoever part man hath in the action. Yet it tells us more, for I tell you still, that this judgment of Jesus Christ is the image and figure of the latter judgment: for such process as is used here, shall be used in the latter judgment. Then, I say, it tells us, that in that latter day, a reprobate and sinner, who shall not be found in Jesus Christ, shall be deprived, and spoiled of all the creatures, made for the use and ornament of man, and there shall never a one of them be left him, neither shall he have so much a foot-breadth of earth, or the meanest commodity in the world: yea, albeit he were a king, let him have possessions, kingdoms, and the whole earth now, but then there shall not be anything in this world that he shall possess at that day, but shame in the Hell for evermore. Where by the contrary, they who shall be found in Jesus Christ, shall not only be clad with incorruption and glory in Christ; but also shall be put in possession of a new Heaven and new Earth, to reign with their Head and Lord Jesus Christ for evermore. Ye see then what happiness it is to be found in Jesus Christ at that Great day. O the misery of him who shall be found out of Him!

Now to come to that shame which He suffers on the Cross. The Father, thorough His nakedness herein also is just: He was cledde on the Cross with our sins. It tells us this: that among all the punishments of sin, this is one, to wit, nakedness, to set the body naked in the sight of the world. Ye read in Isaiah. 3.17. where the sinful women are threatened for their pride, that the Lord JEHOVAH shall make naked and discover their secret parts to the world. But to speak of the latter day: beside all the rest of the punishments of the reprobate, the nakedness of their carcases shall be a punishment, they shall rise with foul bodies, whereas the Elect shall rise with glorified bodies: and the reprobate shall stand up in the sight of all men & Angels, with naked bodies, that their shame may be seen, & they shall cry (to hide their shame) on the mountains, to cover them, and on the hills to fall on them. Now last to speak of that despite that He suffered: They parte His garments before Him, in despite of Him: They go not to a backside to deal them. Look to God's dealing here: this is a just thing with God, that he who is a sinner, and who in contempt and despite of God hath sinned, that he be contemned again, and suffer despite openly. And Christ, among all other punishments, bare this punishment of contempt upon the Cross. Then if contempt be done unto thee, who art a sinner, & not in Jesus Christ, not cledde with His justice, in respect of God; it is due justice, if thy goods be taken and pulled from thee before thine eyes, if thy sons be slain in despite of thee, or thy virgins destored, thyself looking on, take it for the just judgment of God. In the latter day, beside all the punishments that shall fall upon a reprobate, despite shall be done to them. If it were but this, that the persons whom they disdained, contemned, and spitted upon, shall be glorified in despite of them. So to ende this: This teaches us, howe good a thing it is to be in Jesus Christ, and howe blessed that body shall be who is found in Him. And as for thee, who art out of Jesus Christ, woe shall be to thee, suppose thou were an Emperor. Now to go forward: After the Hang-man, and after their despite, follows the part of the people who gazed on Him, they begin, and wag their heads. David foretelles of that in the 22. Psalm, verse. 7. They had me in derision, and made a mowe, and nodde their heads, and they said, Is this the man who said, he would destroy the glorious Temple of Jerusalem, and build it after in three days▪ Come down from the Cross, and save thyself. They mistook the LORD, for the LORD understood of the Temple of His body, which after three days by His glorious resurrection, he should re-edify and build up again: so the opprobrie that they cast up to Him is this: He was wount to say, He would cast down the Temple, and build it up again in three days: But this is a thing impossible: and their ground they take from His present infirm estate, that inhabilitie He was in on the Cross. So they gather of that, Seeing He could not free Himself, that the other was impossible. Before I mark or observe anything on this place, I shall follow out the scoffing, railing, and mocking of others, After the people came in the Princes of the people, as High Priests, Scribes, Pharisees, Elders, and Rulers, and they rail on Him, saying, This man took on Him the Name of CHRIST, let us see if He can save Himself : As they would say, It is impossible to Him who now hangs so ignominiously to save Himself. After them came the men of war • e, and in derision: They offer Him vinegar to drink, And they say, this is very like a King. How can He do the duty of a King, to deliver the people, who cannot deliver Himself. This they said, because He had called Himself a King, to the prejudice, as they thought, of Caesars Kingdom▪ And lastly, one of the thieves railed on Him, to wit, He that hang at His left hand, saying, So like as thou art that Christ who can neither save us nor thyself. Now, because the railing of the whole is all to one effect: therefore, shortly I shall observe some things in general, as the Lord shall offer.

In all this railing out against Him, ye see the extreme humiliation of JESUS CHRIST, for our sins: He is made of no reputation: No, He is trodde on as a worm: And no question, that extreme torment of body was not so grievous to Him, as was this railing on Him. They speak to Him as a very reprobate: and so far as lay in them, they endeavored to make Him to despare of all help. So ye may seee, this railing was a thing most grievous to Him. And David being His type, he complains on this shame, that they heaped on Him, in the 22. Psalm. All this lets us see, howe dearly the Lord hath bought our life and Salvation: And we are more than miserable, if we see not this: And also it lets us see, what should have become of us, if He had not satisfied for us: and what should become of thee, if thou be not in CHRIST in that great day. And it tells thee, seeing all this is for thy sin, that thou shouldest have a sad heart to have such a Redeemer made such a spectacle, and thou shouldest groan under the burden of sin: and when thou readest of the Cross, thine heart should be sorrowful, that ever thou shouldest have moved the GOD of glory to such vengeance of His dear Son for thee. Think not that every man shall be relieved of his sin by Him. No, only those who learn to groan under the burden of their own sins, by the which they have pierced Him: and turn to the LORD unfeignedly, and get favor. So if thou learnest not at one time or other to groan, under the burden of thy sin, thou shalt never be relieved by Him.

But to mark something of this railing: I see, that these things they cast up to Him, is the very verdict, whereupon they accused Him. They accused Him, because He called Himself the Christ, and because He called Himself the King of the Jews : and because He said, that He would destroy the Temple, and build it up again the third day. So the very thing y ^t they cast up to Him in despite, is y ^e very crime wherefore they condemned Him. Men would think, y ^t it should have contented them to had Him hanging in torment: but Brethren, alas, the malice of the enemies of Jesus Christ is endless, there is none end of it: it will not be the death of one Christian: y ^t will satisfy them, it will not be thy blood that will quench their thirst: but in thy torment they will rail on, and strive to cause thee to despare, that thy soul may perish. There is such an extreme despite in their hearts, that they would have thine ashes and thy bones to be exponed to opprobrie and shame, which hath lain so long in the grave. See we not this, howe the bones of faithful Christians have been taken up, and burnt by the Antichrist. The LORD save us from their cruelty: But here I lift up mine eyes, and look unto GOD. The Lord Jesus, He suffered most justly, who was cled with our sins, and bare them on the Cross for our cause: and it learns thee this, that if thou sufferest opprobrie and shame▪ and men rail on thee, that thou go ever to see, if thou be in Christ, in thy suffering: for if thou be out of Christ, woe is to thee, for that is but the beginning and forerunner of that pain and shame that thou shalt suffer in Hell. I tell this more, in that latter day, when y ^e reprobate shall be condemned, their sin which was the cause of their death, shall ever be had in memory, but if once thou goest to Hell, y ^e remembrance of thy sin shall never be buried▪ but thy verdict shall be cast in thy teeth, & thy conscience shall taunt thee, and shall say to thee, Murderer, thou delitedst in murder, now go to murder, now free thyself out of Hell, if thou canst: and to them who followed Harlots, Thou delitedst in Harlotrie, and in offending of GOD thou who couldest not be satisfied in pleasuring thy fool lusts, now satisfy thyself with these extreme torments; now go to thy harlotry, let see: And to the blasphemer, Thou delitedst in blaspheming of GOD, now let see if thou dare blaspheme, go thy way now, and blaspheme: And to the Idolater, Thou delitedst in worshipping of Idolles, and leftest the worshipping of the true GOD; now go thy way to Idolatry, &c. Now, would to GOD the world could think • Hell to be earnest. This torment and railing in the death of CHRIST, is an image of the torment of Hell.

I see here further, that besides this, there is a ground of all their opprobrie, to wit, that shameful Cross which JESUS was hanging on: They thought, that seeing JESUS was crucified, it was impossible for Him to cast down the Temple, and to build it up again: They thought it was impossible for Him to save the world, seeing He could not save Himself: and that He could not do the duty of a King, who was already hanged: How becomes it a King to be hanged? The cause of their offense was that shame which He suffered and that they saw that He could not deliver Himself. The Cross of Jesus is foolishness to the world: & blessed are they who will not take offense at the Cross of Christ. Look howe they are deceived in their judgments: Because the Cross was the only mean whereby He should have done all things, when He was hanging, was He not destroying the Temple of His body, that after three days, by His glorious resurrection He might build it up again? And when He was on the Cross, did He not the office of Christ? that is, of an anointed Priest: for then He was offering that Sacrifice of His body to the Father: And was He not by the Cross purchasing to Himself and to us a glorious Kingdom? Yea, on the Cross, He like a glorious King, triumphed over the Devils and made an open show of them: for He had a battle with the Devils on the Cross, and triumphed over them all. Col. 2.15. This same blindness of the world remains still in it: for when the world sees a body under afflictiō, in poverty, bu • nt or martyred for Christ's sake, then the world thinks it is impossible that that body can attain to glory. They think him as an outcast, and will scorn his profession. They will say, Are these your Christians? of all men they are the moste miserable, if that be the way to Heaven, I will renounce to go that way, this is rather the way to go to Hell. This is the voice of the world: And the cause is, because miserable catiues know not what sin is, which at that time behooved to be purged by the Cross: for the justice and Majesty of GOD being offended, required that it should be so: and now in us sin thorough manifold crosses and afflictions must be mortified. Let the world think and speak as it pleases, the only way whereby thou shalt come to life, is suffering and affliction: and thou must think this, that we must be racked thorough Hell, ere we come to Heaven. Our redemption is wrought by the Cross: thou shalt not come to Heaven, but by the Cross. The ground of all is sin: But alas, the world sees it not. The word will teach thee, that there is no other way to come to Heaven, but by affliction: and it will thee, that if thou be not purged and changed by trouble and affliction, thou shalt never see Heaven. Alas, that we could once groan under sin. And blessed is the soul, that hath a sight of the weight of sin: and woe to that soul, that hath no sight of sin.

To go forward: I see in this Thief, who rayles on Christ, some special thing: he hath a particular of his own, he is in torment, and therefore he says, If thou be that CHRIST, save thyself and us. Brethren, a torment, whatsoever it be, if it be not the better sanctified, it will move the creature to fall out in blasphemy: thou wilt blaspheme both in heart and mouth, and thou wilt say, that there is no power in GOD to save thee: And the Thief in effect said this, There is no power in thee to save me▪ I renounce thee as a Savior: and, if thou confess His power, thou wilt deny His mercy, and wilt say, GOD is but a Tyrant. And, if thou wilt say, He is merciful: be merciful to whom He will, He cannot be merciful unto me: This last distrusting of mercy to thyself, is a great sin. And that to say altogether, that there is no mercy in GOD, it is a plain blasphemy. And last, to say, there is no power in GOD it is to deny GOD to be GOD: For howe can He be GOD, if He want power? So I think, that this catiue hath been a great blasphemer of that Majesty: and when I look on it, I see in him the image of the death of the reprobate, when they are dying and changing this life. (The Lord give us grace to die well.) The reprobate shall think, that in their doing, God hath no power to save them: for, of all men in the world, the reprobate is the most Ioath to die: for either they shall think that God is not merciful at all, or else at least, that there is no mercy in Him for them: and so the miserable creature will turn his back on GOD, and immediately shall cast himself into Hell and damnation. We read of Sidrach, Mesach, and Abednego, that they were so far from this blasphemy, that when the Tyrant falls out in blasphemy, they meet him, and say, Our GOD is Almighty, and He hath power to deliver us if He please. Never come thou to despair, though thou shouldest die ten thousand deaths: but sleep in His bosom, & hang on Him, and save His honor, and think not that which may derogate His honor, and say, Though thou shouldest slay me, LORD, yet will I trust in thee, and so die sweetlie, resting in His arms. Well, I see this hath been a miserable body, and hath died miserably, blaspheming the God of Glory: and this is even as the reprobate shall do at the latter Judgment. And yet when I compare him with the Pharisees and Priests, I find their blasphemy greater than his. Well shall it be to the Thief, in respect of them, for they had knowledge, and he wanted. Who should have had knowledge but they? They had no torment, he had sore torment. What need had they to blaspheme? Therefore, their condemnation shall be greater than his. And when I compare this blasphemy of the Thief with the blasphemy of some men in these days, who when any cross falls upon them without their expectation, will say, What can GOD do more unto me? so in effect denying power to be in GOD, and in JESUS CHRIST: I count the blasphemy of these men to be greater than his was. For now JESUS is in Glory: and the Thief saw Him on the Cross in misery with himself. If thou now blasphemest Him so, it were well done, that thy mouth were sowed up, that thou never spakest a word.

Now to ende with this. The LORD give us grace, that neither in thought nor in word we dishonor that MAIESTIE, but may acknowledge His mercy and power towards us in JESUS CHRIST: To whom be all Honor, Glory, Praise, Power, and Dominion, both now and evermore, Worlde without ende: AMEN.

THE XVII. LECTURE, OF THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

W EE heard the last day (Brethren) of all these railings and blasphemies that the Lord Jesus suffered of all ranks and estates of persons, whilst He hang on the Cross naked, living in torment. Pilate began, & fixed on the Cross an ignominious inscription, That Jesus was a Traitor against Caesar, and that He suffered death for His treason. Then the Hang-men, four in number, in despite, and in His sight, took his garments, and divided them in four partes: and because his coat had no seam, but was woven throughout, therefore they cast lots for it, who should have it whole. Then comes on the people, with their part, and rail upon Him, and blaspheme Him, saying, Now if thou be that Christ, come down and save thyself. Then follow the high Priests, the Scribes, and the Elders, who rail on Him, and say, Is this he who will save others? let see if he can be able to save himself. Then the men of war and Gentiles begin to rail, if thou be the King of the Jews, save thyself, and come down from the Cross. And then one of the Thieues rails out on Him, If thou be that Christ, save thyself, and us both : but now so like as thou art the Christ, thou art adying as well as we, and art neither able to s • ue thyself, nor us: and therefore thou art not a King. Now, Brethren, ye may perceive that it was no prayer that this thief made to CHRIST, as some think.

We spake of this thief the last day: now we have to speak of the part of the other thief: he is twitched with repentance: in an instant he becomes penitent: and the inward conversion of the heart to GOD, he utters outwardly in sundry effects: First, perceiving the other thief his companion to blaspheme GOD, the first action that he does, he defends the honor of the LORD against the other thief, and rebukes him: and after that, gives a free confession of his sins: and last, he turns to Jesus Christ hanging on the Cross, and says, LORD remember me when thou comest to thy Kingdom. The LORD answers immediately to the thief: Verily, thou shalt be with me this day in Paradise.

To come then first to the rebuke he gives to the other thief, Fearest thou not GOD? The meaning is, Thief, fie on thee, seeing thou hangs in a common misery and torment with me, and this man, fearest thou not GOD, who wilt blaspheme and rail on Him, seeing thou art shortly to appear before that Tribunal, and give an account of all thine evil deeds, & chiefly of the blaspheming of the innocent. So he takes up the blaspheming from the fountain, and he lets him see that his heart was void of the fear of GOD: for if he had any sponke of the fear of GOD, he had not fallen out in railing against the GOD of glory.

We learn this lesson, that when the hand of GOD is lying on any man, and pressing him to the death, then it is time to be humble, and to fear the LORD, and that terrible Judgment wherein thou must stand immediately after this life: and if there appear no fear of that Judge in thee, and if thou utterest a plain rebellion, that testifies that his hand shall never leave thee, until it bruise thee in powder, and thrust thee to the lowest Hells. This is the thing that affliction should work in us, Humiliation and the fear of GOD. Learn the lesson at the thief. Proud soul, and proud creature, if thou wilt not learn at others: But as this rebuke testifies, that this should be: so the railing of the other testifies, that it is not ay in men. There are some men whom all the torments in the world will not move, ere they be the better, they will be in Hell, hang them, nail them to the Cross, tear them with pincers, they shall never be the better. What is the cause of this? It is a wonderful thing, that such trouble & torment should not work some fear of GOD in the creature. But how can any affliction press out of the creature that which was never in it. The fear of GOD is not in the hearts of many, and therefore howe can they utter it: a rotten and withered stick was never more meet to be burnt, than thou by nature. So we being by nature like as many rotten sticks, albeit we were pressed with mountains, we shall never yield a sweet sap, or any repentance: No, before we yield any drop of repentance, we shall be bruised in powder: fie on nature: if thou werest a Prince, thou shalt go to Hell, if thou have no more but nature, if thou gettest not one d • oppe of grace. Yet ye see, that the other thief, when he is pressed, yields one drop of sap: he becomes penitent, and is zealous of the glory of the Lord JESUS. These are good effects: The Cross that wrought evil in the other thief, works good in this thief: But who made the difference? Who discerneth thee, saith Paul : Not nature: They were alike in nature, alike in misdeeds, alike in a wicked life, the one had lived as wickedly as the other, alike in torment: It was JESUS that made the separation, it was a happy time for the one thief, that ever he was crucified beside the LORD of glory. The Lord JESUS made the difference: out of that fullness He pours out one drop of His grace: He gives none to the other.

Learn this, that all troubles and afflictions, crosses, and all the torments in the world, shall never make thee better: All the torments in the world, shall not work one drop of spiritual moisture out of thee: the torments may well p • esse out sour and bitter sap, as blasphemy, railing, and despare, but no good sap, as Faith, or Repentance: except thou get it of the fullness of JESUS CHRIST: and therefore my counsel is, When thou feelest the hand of the Lord on thee, & namely in the hour of death (a dangerous hour) turn thee to Jesus Christ, and say, thou mayest press me down, but long ere I yield one drop of grace, except thou give it me: Lord, therefore give me one drop of grace. Another thing I mark in the rebuke of the other thief. Common misery should work a mutual compassion: thou should piti • them who are in a like misery with thee, and if thou doest it not, thou do • st as the evil thief did: I say thou hast no fear of God: & if thou raylest on him who is in misery with thee, thine heart is full of the gall of bitterness. By nature we are all alike in misery: there is not a thing that becomes a sinner better, than to have compassion on others: an heart without pity, shall never be pitied, not never shall see life.

Now, to go forward, when he hath said, Thou art in like damnation, lest that y ^e thief rebuked should have thought, y ^t Christ should have deserved that pain as well as he (think not that they who are alike in misery, are alike guilty: No, no, ye are deceived) Well, he meets this, we suffer nothing but that which we demerit: I & thou are justly in this common condemnation, but this man hath done nothing amiss. This railing and pain, this man demerits not: yet if ye will weigh the words narrowly: we shall see other two arguments, whereby he rebukes this blasphemous companion. The first is, from their merits: The second from the innocence of Christ: The first, thou meritest this torment: and therefore should not thy merit work a fear of God, and a fear of an heavier judgment: Lord save us from the merit of sin. When a man is in torment, and chiefly in death, the pain should work a fear of God: and then considering the merit, there should strike a greater fear in the heart, that there should ensue a greater damnation afterward. The consideration of merit should work a fear, and the conscience should not so soon stand up to accuse us of sin, but we should be stricken with a fear of that terrible Judge: but every man hath not this sense: the thief hath not that sense of the merit of the present pain, nor yet of the greater pain that was to insue. What is the cause of this, that every man feels not this, The conscience of the merit of sin is not given to every man: We are all sinners, and merits all our pain, we merit death and Hell. But, alas, where one gets the conscience of their merit, and feels that they deserve death, ten wants it. It is a pity to see, how many dies without sense like dogs, and then if it fall so, that one get the conscience of sin in the hour of death, it falls out ofttimes, that they get not the sense of mercy. It may be, that thou get the sense of sin, and be stricken with a fear, but with a desperate fear: for with the sense and feeling of sin, if there be not also a sense of mercy, there is nothing but terror, and a servile fear. So thou shalt die like a vile slave in damnation. So the conscience of this thiefes merit makes him to fear God: & no doubt, he hath had a sweet sense of the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. But who made this difference? It was the Lord: It was a happy thing for this thief to be crucified with JESUS CHRIST: for all this slowed out of the Cross of JESUS CHRIST. Therefore take up the lesson. Think not that in the hour of death thou shalt be twitched as thou shouldest, either with the feeling of thy sin and misery, or yet of mercy: except that thou sweetly turn thee to the Cross of CHRIST, and say, LORD, I feel neither sense of my merit, and what my sins deserves, nor of mercy: LORD, therefore give me it, then the sweetness of that sense shall swallow up that pain. No comfort in death but in JESUS CHRIST: except thine eyes be set on that Cross, Woe is to thee, and woe to thee again, and better for thee, if thou hadst never come in the world. Thou and I, says he, suffer justly. This confession witnesses the inward conversion to JESUS CHRIST: for when the heart of a sinner is turned to JESUS CHRIST, it will taste a such sweetness, that the creature will not care by that it be shamed, so it can get that LORD in whom it feels such a sweetness, glorified: it is a sure token, that these shameless sinners, these men who will not shame themselves in the sight of the world, but will stand in their pointes of honor, with GOD, these miserable souls, these bloody murderers, these adulterers, tasted never of that mercy in JESUS CHRIST.

If thou wouldest have thy sins hid from the eyes of GOD, that terrible Judge, then open them to the world, that the LORD may be glorified: and if thou hidest thy sins, the LORD shall rip up thy breast in that great day, and let all the world see the most hid and secret corner of thine heart, to thy shame and confusion.

Now come to the third argument of reproof, and it is taken from the innocence of Jesus: This is an innocent and just man, Fearest thou not GOD, to rail on the innocent: if He were guilty, as thou and I am, thy railing were more tolerable, but howe canst thou rail on this just man? The lesson is, Just ones who suffer innocently, should not be railed upon: the LORD keep our mouths from railing on them: if thy conscience tell thee of their innocence, revile them not: & a man who suffers, may be innocent two manner of ways: for either he is innocent in himself, and not guilty of that for which he suffers, or else if he be a malefactor, and guilty, he may be innocent through Faith and repentance through the blood of Jesus Christ, as this thief was innocent in Christ. Now if a man be innocent of that crime for which he suffers, rail not on him on pain of thy life: and if thou findest him innocent in the blood of Jesus Christ, and findest him to have true and unfeigned repentance in Him, albeit he be never so wicked, let him die, and suffer these pains he should suffer: for repentance should not exeeme and free him from civil punishment: but beware thou rail on him: surely thy mouth should be stopped, to rail out on him. God forbid that an evil word be spoken out against him as a reprobate, whom the LORD Jesus countes innocent in His blood: for this railing testifies that thou counts that man as a reprobate: and that is too sore a judgment thou takes to thee. I see here further, the LORD never leaves His Son without a testimony of His innocence: Pilate ever on testified His innocence before he condemned Him, and said, once, twice, thrice, I find nothing worthy of death in Him : No, Pilate was never brought to say, that Christ was guilty, suppose he condemned Him, but ever preached, and proclaimed His innocence. Then when He is coming to suffer, the poor women follows and testifies: and now the poor penitent thief testifies the innocence of Christ: and lastly, the men of war were compelled to say, Of a truth, this is the Son of God. And if ye consider well, ye shall see two things very contrary: that of all men that suffered, He was both the most just, and the most unjust: He was innocent in Himself, and He was guilty in us: and this for our consolation: for this lets us seee, how meet a Mediator He was for us: my Savior must be innocent in Himself, Heb. 7.26. and He must be guilty in me. Thus far this thief hath uttered that inward repentance, in rebuking the other for his blasphemy, and sin, and in confessing his sins before the other thief and those that stood by: now follows the third effect, he turns him to the Lord, and in all humility seeking remission, grace, and life, and says, Lord remember me when thou comest to thy Kingdom. Prayer should follow upon confession of sins: but mark the word, he calls Him Lord, albeit he saw Him hanging on the tree▪ there like a vile slave, yet he acknowledges Him to be a King, when he ascribeth a Kingdom to Him, albeit he sees Him hanging there like a slave, yet he asks life of Him: albeit he saw Him in weakness, in torment, and at the point of death. All these things are marvelous, and ye shall see them the more marvelous, if ye will consider well the person of him who prays, what a man before this time he was, and then what is his estate present, and last, the person of Him to whom he directs his Prayer.

This his conversion was marvelous: if this man had been trained up in the school of Christ any space of time, it had been less marvelous: but being trained up in a den of thieves, where he had lost all kind of equity and naturalitie, where he had lived like a beast, like a lyon, living by cutting of throats, theft, and by the blood of men: this man to be turned from such an foul heart: to get faith, and seek mercy so suddenly in a moment: such sudden mutation is more than marvelous and wonderful.

Then will ye look to his present estate: if he had been free in the body without pain, so that he had gotten leisure and license to look thorough that body to His Kingdom, and to that eternal Life: then this doing had been less marvelous: but being nailed quick on the Cross, in such extreme pain, that might have occupied and exercised all his senses: and when he is looking and waiting for the hand of the hangman to break him quick on the Cross, to this man to have driven his senses, and to have set them on a better life, from that hell he was in, to that heavenly Life, it was more than wonderful: and I say, it was as wonderful, as if he had leapt out of the lowest hell, to the highest heaven.

Then come to the person of him to whom he prays: if he had seen Jesus Christ standing before him like a glorious King, it had been less to have been wondered at, but he is hanging in that shameful death, and in greater shame than he: for they railed not on him, as they did on Christ (which, no question, was more grievous than all torments, as if He had been a reprobate from GOD) So if he had seen Him in glory, it had been no marvel, but to seek life in a man who was dying ignominiously, and who was hanging in a worse estate than Himself, and to have pierced thorough, and seen thorough such a cloud of ignominy, such a fair Life and glory: I say, it was more than wonderful.

Further, if he had seen Him before, and been familiar with Him, heard Him teach, and had seen His wonders, as the Apostles did, it had not been much to marvel at: but this being the first meeting, the first acquaintance, and never to have spoken with Him before, they met in an ignominious Cross together, then to seek in such a death, such a life: in such ignominy, such glory, it is a thing more than marvelous. Came any of the Jews then, and prayed unto Him? Yea, came any of the Apostles? Came any of His Disciples? Came either Peter, or John, or Matthew ? No, all were offended with Him. I say of this man, to the glory of God, that he shamed all that stood by, he shamed the Apostles, and made them to cast down their faces: And I say, he shames all men and women, who will not believe when they see Him not crucified, as he saw, but glorified now in the Heavens, sitting at the right hand of that Majesty: shame shall light on thee, and this Thief shall be set up in glory, to testify against thee, and to condemn thee. 1. COR. 1.27. Paul says, GOD will raise up things naughty, to shame things high in the world, and to humble the pride of the flesh. If ever this was practiced, it is practiced in this Thief. Therefore, in time learn thy lesson at this Thief: for if he do thee no good, he shall do thee evil: and this same preaching shall do thee evil, if it do thee no good. The LORD raised him up upon a Gallows, to be a Teacher of Faith and Repentance, of Hope, of Patience, of Love, and of all graces: and think no shame to learn at him: for, if thou thinkest shame of the Thief to be thy master, he shall give out a testimony to aggreadge thy damnation: and he shall say, I went to teach the Infideles on the Cross with Thee, and they heard it, and believed not, Lord, let their damnation be aggreadged. All this that I speak tendes to this, That he who glories, may glory in the Lord: And they who would marvel, let them marvel at the Lord. I speak not these things, that ye should wonder at the Thief, that silly creature: But all this is, That ye should wonder at Jesus Christ, who wrought such a wonder at this time, and shown such a power when He was weakened: It is a wonder to show such power in His humiliation, and such mercy on such a vile sinner, who was not worthy that the earth should bear him, let be to dwell in Heaven. Wonder at Him who is so merciful and gracious to poor sinners. To Him therefore, be praise for evermore: AMEN.

THE XVIII. LECTURE, OF THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

W EE heard the last day (Beloved in Jesus) of the repentance of one of the Thieues that hung on the Cross with Christ: in a moment, wonderfully he begins to be penitent for all his misdeeds, and former life: and he utters his penitency, and the displeasure that was in his heart for sin in sundry effects: First, he rebukes bitterlie that blasphemy that the other Thief speaks out against the Lord, and says, Fearest thou not God, seeing thou art in the same damnation? Thou and I suffer justly, for we have demerited all this: but this man (pointing out Christ) hath done nothing amiss. When he hath thus rebuked the Thief, he turns him about to Jesus Christ, who hung in the midst, and he directs his prayer to Him, and says, Lord remember me when thou comest to thy Kingdom. The other, the blasphemer, would fain have lived in the world: And therefore, because he saw that JESUS had no power to give him this earthly life: therefore, he blasphemeth CHRIST in His face.

But the penitent Thief seeks not this present life, but desires that he may get entry in to that Heavenly Kingdom. The last day I spake concerning the petition of the penitent Thief. I repeat nothing. Only wonder not at the Thief, or at such an earnest repentance in him suddenly: b •• wonder at Jesus Christ, who in such weakness, hanging so shamefully upon the Cross, yet uttered such mercy, and such infinite power, yea, one of the moste miserable catiues that ever was in the world. I go forward, and first I shall show you of the answer that the Lord gives to the penitent Thief: and then I shall come to the earnest recommendation that Jesus made of His Mother MARIE, unto JOHN. The Lord answers him, Verily I say unto thee, this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise. The answer contains a promise: and the thing that the Lord promises, is, Thou shalt be with me: thou seekest to be with me in my Kingdom: thou shalt be with me, and thou shalt be a subject with me and more, a follower: and whereas thou werest a vile Thief, I shall make thee a glorious King in the Heaven. And when shall this be? Without delay: it shall not be tomorrow, or other morrow, but this same day immediately thou shalt be transported to that unspeakable glory. And where shall this be? It shall be in Paradise. Thou shalt not go to Purgatory, but into Celesti • ll Paradise. Of this word Paradise we read in sundry places of the Newe Testament, as namely, 2. COR. 12.4. (where PAUL speaks of his ravishing to Paradise) and also REVEL. 2.7. But to leave the words, and to come to the meaning: This Paradise signifies none other thing, but that House of the Father, in the which is many mansions, as we said in the fourteenth Chapter. Now would ye know the place of it? PAUL says, It is far above these visible heavens, where Christ himself ascended, EPHES. 4.10. It is the place of the Throne of that Majesty of that Glory, and of that everlasting rest of the Church of Jesus Christ, and of His Saints, where they shall rest in a wonderful glory euerlastinglie. The word is borrowed from that Paradise, that Park of pleasure, in the which ADAM and EVAH were planted, to live in a wonderful pleasure forever, if they had stood without sin.

But to come to the matter. First in this answer that the Lord makes to the penitent Thief, ye may see a wonderful readiness in Christ, to hear the petition of a miserable sinner: for he hath scarcely spoken the word, when the Lord makes an answer: and no marvel; for He that preuentes thee with grace, ere thou thinkest of grace, He will follow after with grace: He who gives grace to beg grace, He will give a gracious answer. ROMAN. 8.26. The Spirit of GOD interceadeth for us, with sighs unspeakable. That is the first grace. Then he subjoins▪ The Lord who searcheth the heart, knoweth the sense and meaning of his own Spirit. There is the seconde grace. Thou shalt not so soon open thy mouth to speak to Him with the Spirit, but He shall as soon hear thy word: thou shalt not so soon have a meaning, but it shall as soon touch the heart of the Lord, as it touches thine heart: because it is not thy spirit, but the Lord's Spirit who speaks in thee. So all the difficulty and hardness, is, to get the first grace to pray: there is no difficulty of the next. And there are wondrous few who gets this grace, to beg, to sigh, to sobb, &c. yea, where one hath it, ten wants it: and when this is once gotten, the other follows of its own will: for if thou askest spiritual graces, of necessity thou shalt get thy petition granted. And, if we ask earthly things, either shall we get our petition, or else the Lord once shall show us, why He will not grant it: and so we shall have contentment to undertake His will, and shall heartily thank Him. There is more yet in this answer: Besides this easiness to hear, mark an abounding mercy, and exceeding liberality, of the Lord, passing above the petition: The Thief only prayed the Lord to remember him, when He came in His Kingdom : The Lord answers, Behold, even I give thee more than thou requirest, for thou shalt be with me this day in Paradise, so thou needest not to fear that I forget thee. The Thief seeks but a little thing: the Lord gives him more than he can seek: the hand of the Lord is not so scarce. Wilt thou seek a little thing? the Lord shall give a thousand times more than thou canst seek: the Lord hath neither scant nor want. Brethren, the glory which we shall find one day, shall be greater than we can look or hope for in this world. No, things Heauenlie, which He shall give, surmountes further above our capacity, than the Heaven does above the Earth. Yea, if thou speakest of earthly things, finds not many by experience, that they get such an estate in the world, as they would never have looked or hoped for: I sought but life (says David, Psal. 21. 5 ) yet the Lord gave me to be a king : that is, He gave me not only a private & obscure life, but a glorious life in the sight of the people. Besides this easiness and liberality of the Lord, to grant to a poor man, above that that he durst presume, He prescribes no time, but this same day. I know not if he durst have been so bold, as to have sought such a time, that same day. Mark further here, a wonderful power in the Lord, at that time when He was in a most vile and ignominious death, which was the image of Hell, to pull a man quick on the Cross, to break Him on a Cross. The Lord is weakened: the Jews thought more of the dirt they trode on, than of Jesus: yet ye see what a wonderful power which strikes out from Him to the thief: this is the power of a King, This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise What Emperor durst speak this? Yea, He utters the power of GOD Himself: This promise is proper to GOD only, to promise participation of that heavenly Kingdom. What Angel durst do this? None, but the eternal and immortal GOD. It is true, the LORD Jesus, whilst as He hang upon the Cross, was wonderfully weakened, and that glorious Godhead that dwelt in the human Nature kept it self close for a time, and held in the beams of His glory for a time, within that veil of His body (for if He had not kept close that Glory of His Godhead, the world, could not have crucified Him) yet He kept Him not so close, but in the Cross He manifests Himself, He does the part of a King, and fought a fiercer battle, than all the Kings in the world. He fought against all the enemies, and in the ende He triumphs in that Cross, as in a Chariote, and leads them all, as thieves before Him: And if there were no more to show that He was a King, than this hasty conversion of the thief, it may tell you, if Christ had such a power, whilst as He hang in such weakness on the Cross: What power hath He now when He is in the Heaven, exalted in the Throne of glory. If it be so, that we feel not CHRIST powerful in us to life, as the thief felt. Blame not JESUS, as if He wanted power sufficient now in glory, who had such power in His humility: but blame thyself: Thou wants that which the thief had: thou wants Faith in Christ glorified: the thief may shame thee, who believed in Him, whē He was in extreme ignominy. Then to end all this y ^t hath been spokē of this answer in a word. Seeing y ^e Lord of lords, y ^e Lord Jesus is so ready (Never was there King so ready to hear a subject, as Jesus is:) if thou werest the vilest body that goes, a Thief, a Harlot, &c. yet if thou wilt say this, Lord, remember on me, and give me a part of thy Kingdom: if thou prayest to Him from a penitent heart, with confidence and assurance, I promise unto thee, Heaven and Earth shall go together, ere thou wantest thine asking. Seeing our Lord Jesus is so liberal, then seek more than enough, more than a Kingdom, and thou shalt get more. The only cause why we want, is in us, we have no hearts to seek it. And last: Seeing He is so powerful, let us seek from Him with this assurance, that He can give all things which either we can seek, or can conceive, and that according to His effectual power working in us. Now I end with this History of the Thief, & I come to the other History, concerning that recommendation that Jesus makes of His Mother Marie, to John, His Disciple, whom He loved. The Lord Jesus hanging on the Cross in extreme torment & pain: He is not only a sufferer (howbeit indeed He sufferes all extremity) but in suffering He does many works: First, He does like a King, in giving life and glory to the Thief. All the Kings in the Earth in their Royal Robes, shall not do so much as He did on that vile Cross. Now next, He utters a very natural and loving affection to His Mother, who bare Him, when He is to depart out of this life and to be taken away hastily, He is careful how she shall live when He is gone from her. To come to the History: We have first the occasion that brings on this: and secondly, the commendation it self: and thirdly, how John accepts of her. As concerning the occasion: There stands by the Cross, a man and three women, whilst the LORD is hanging quick in extreme torment, He spies out these four persons, MARIE His Mother, and MARIE His Mothers Sister, that is, her kinswoman according to there HEBREW phrase, who was either the Wise, or the Daughter of Cleopas, and MARIE MAGDALENE, a kind woman, out of whom He had casten seven devils: (kindness meets kindness) Their hearts were with Him, howbeit He was hanging upon the Cross. Then, if thou canst do no more unto Him, yet follow Him with these women to the death of the Cross. There are three Mary's, better Mary's were never in the world: and John, whom here he calls the disciple whō Jesus loved: this style he gets in y ^e Gospel, because, as Jesus loved him entirely, so he finds this love deeply settled in his soul: & well is he that finds that the Lord loves him: All the Kingdoms in the Earth are nothing in respect of that sense. Well. These are the four that are standing by the Cross, together. As for John, I see now certainly this doing of his in the following of the Lord, & this standing by the Cross, shows, albeit that Faith in Jesus Christ, in the heart of John, and all the rest, was wonderfully smothered, for all were offended in Him that night: yet that Faith in his heart was not altogether quenched: No, it was not quenched in one of the Apostles, nor in Peter, who denied Him. To speak of John, Think, ye that except he had had Faith, that ever he would have followed Him to the Cross, and except he had believed that Jesus after such a death should have risen again in glory, except he had looked for a glorious resurrection, that ever he could have beholden such a miserable spectacle: Faith gave him boldness to follow Christ to the Cross, Hope furnished him comfort, when he beheld Him in ignominy and pain. These three women utters a tender and loving heart towards Him. Brethren, if there had been no more, but this natural love that a mother bears to the son, Marie would never have followed her Son, to such a vile death, if she had not believed that death should have turned into such a glorious Life. Would she have stood beside her Son, and seen Him torn and rent quick in such torments? What mother would have done it? 1. Thess, 4.13. ye read what Paul writes to them: I would not have you ignorant, that ye mourn not for them which are asleep, as the Gentiles who are desperate in their displeasure. If thou have but a natural love in thine heart, when thou seest him, or her, whom thou lovest, depart, that love shall work but impatiency in thee, & a desperate displeasure, that is, if with that love thou have no hope of a glorious resurrection, desperate shall be thy dolour, and it were better for thee to want thy natural affection. Indeed it is true, our Faith▪ and Hope of glory after this life, will not extinguish the natural love, neither puts it away the dolour that one should have.

I desire not that a man should be senseless without love: and I count more of a stone, than of one without love, and better were it, that that person were a stone So I say, Faith and Hope will not extinguish displeasure, but it will mitigate it so, that in a wonderful heaviness it will find joy, and thou wilt say, albeit we sunder now, the day will come, wherein we shall have a joyful meeting.

Come yet to these women: They may teach all men and women to the end of the world: Think ye not, that they should have been terrified at such a Cross, and that Marie should have thought shame of her Son, so shamefully tormented, and railed out on by all men. Well then, if these women by the sight of that shameful death of Jesus Christ on the Cross are not terrified nor diverted from following, albeit they saw His glory to come, but very obscurely, and if their hearts were knit with Him, whilst as He hang on the Cross, and there was never a band so surely knit, as their hearts were with Him. Fye on all men and women after these women, who will think shame of the Cross of Christ, albeit they have greater presence and sight of the glory of Jesus Christ, than these women had. Shall a silly word, shall the sword, shall the fire, terrify thee? And if it be so, these same women shall stand up and condemn thee in that great day. Now let us consider these words, whereby He recommends His mother to John. The Lord, as He is looking from Him, He sees these four standing together, (for wicked scorners stood together, so the godly who mourn for Christ drew together) and He directs His speech to two of them: First, to Marie, and next to John: Woman, He says, Behold thy son, pointing to John, not to Himself. This style that He gives her would not be passed by, He calls her not mother, but Woman, and this is the common style which Jesus gave her, whilst as He was in the world: it lets us see whilst Jesus was in the world, as at all times, so especially at the hour of death, whilst He is living in the world, He had His eyes raised up from all earthly and carnal things, which men in this life count much of, as are, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, kindred, Country: And by His example, He would teach us, when we are here to know none according to the flesh: No, not Christ Himself: for in Heavens there shall be neither father nor mother, nor husband, nor wife: but we shall be (all old things which accompany the old creature, being abolished) like Angels in Heaven. Therefore, Jesus, as a pattern, teaches us this, to turn away the eye piece and piece from this Earth, & all that is in it, that we count not much of them, but that • e behold that heavenly life. Paul. 2. Cor. 5. 16. When he was speaking of the redemption that the Lord bought with His precious blood, says, From henceforth I will know no man according to the flesh, and if I did know Jesus sometimes according to the flesh now I will not know Him & he gives a reason Who ever is in Christ, let him be a new creature, the old creatures are past away, behold all things are made new. Fye on thee, that hast thine heart fixed on these earthly things, and forgettest Heaven. This for the style that He gives her: Come to the words, He says, Behold thy son : As if He had said, Woman, I am to depart this life, and I put John in my stead, and I ordain him to take the protection of thee, and to do the duty of a son to thee, in my stead: then He turns Him to John, and He says, Behold thy mother : As if He had said, I go out of the world, and I leave my mother to thee, and I ordain that thou be a son to her, and she a mother to thee, and that thou keep her, and entertain her, so long as thou and she live together. It may be asked, The LORD JESUS CHRIST going to Heaven, might He not from the Heaven have kept His own mother? might He not have taken the defense of His own mother? might He not have preserved Her from all dangers? No question, He might have kept her well eneugh: yet He committes her to John, whom He loves, because He loves His mother well, He commends her to a man whom He loved intierely, He will not contemn the ordinary means, and manner of doing, this same He does daily, the LORD JESUS hath power to save His Church, and all the members of the same, to protect and defend them, but He will not contemn these ordinary means, He will have everyone to keep another, as He commended His mother to John to be kept: And woe be to thee, who may, if thou keep none: And namely the LORD hath a care of that infirm sex, that women be kept by the protection of men, who are faithful. She who is kept under the protection of any in the world, let her give CHRIST glory for it: for it is by His direction: as Marie was directed to John. Consider here further: The LORD at this time is in the service of His heavenly Father: and there was never a man so occupied in His life, as He was at this hour, and He was never so occupied all His time, as now: and He was now occupied chiefly in suffering. It is an easy thing to be occupied in performing duties of the service of GOD, in respect of suffering: it is a sore thing to suffer, as to be cast in a fire, to be nailed on a Cross: yet in suffering albeit He is occupied so, that He forgets His own self, yet when He sees His mother, He forgets not her. I would all men should mark this lesson: The malediction of GOD shall fall on these that deserve the curse of their mother, who glory in it, let them glory in it as they will: our duty to GOD prejudges nothing our duty to father or mother: thou was never so occupied in the service of GOD, as was Jesus Christ, at this hour, who in the midst of all this did His duty to His mother: and Christ will let us see, that our duty to our GOD stands well with our duty to man. Wilt thou pull the first and the second Table asunder, the one from the other: Wilt thou say, that the first prejudges the second, thou doest lie: But look the order: That CHRIST keeps in these duties: doth He first His duty to His mother? No, first, He doth His duty to His Father: He is obedient to His Father, to the death, and in the midst of that obedience to the Father, He doth His duty to His mother. Begin at thy GOD, if thou wouldest do thy duty: and next, come to man, and if thou passest by GOD, to do thy duty to man, thou shalt do nothing of love, nor of sincerity. Fye on thee, and that love, and that duty thou utterest to man: follow not on that love thou bearest to GOD, and wilt thou say this: I see my duty to the King, and to my father binds me, I will do my duty to them, and last, I will serve GOD: anything will serve Him: wilt thou jest so with the LORD, I say to thee, if thou beginnest at man, even at the King, or at thy father or mother, and postpone the LORD, I say to thee, the LORD will have none of thy service: And if thou hatest not, says CHRIST, father and mother for my cause, thou art not worthy of me, Luke 14.26. Then, what shall become of them, who prefer father and mother to GOD, he is but a knave, that will take on him the name of a Christian, and will serve men before GOD: No, that name shall turn to thy shame. Therefore under the pain of thy life, do thy duty first to GOD, and then for GOD'S cause do thy duty to man, that GOD may have the glory of it. Further, there are some in the hour of death that will take so little care of the world, and of them whom they leave behind them, that they are destitute of natural affection, that they regard not if they die, though all the world should fall in one moment: for men wanting that natural affection, will say, What care I, if once I be gone from the world. Now there are others, albeit they loose not altogether that natural affection, who have their senses so occupied, and exercised about the present pain, that they will not know their parents, kinsfolks, or any that appertain unto them. Who was ever in such a pain as Jesus was? And yet out of the midst of torment, of blasphemies, of wrestling with death everlasting, with the wrath of the Father, and with all the Infernal powers, He is careful of His Mother. No man was ever borne, that had such a natural affection as He: no son in this world ever loved his mother so well as He. And except thou be in Jesus Christ, and He sanctify thy affections, that in the hour of death thou mayest sleep in Him sweetly; either thou shalt loose altogether this natural affection, or else it shall be suffocate: that albeit thy Parentes, and all thy kindred were about thee, thou shalt have no care of them: No, thou shalt not once by thine head and countenance utter any meaning, that thou hast a care of their weal. JESUS CHRIST honored His Mother beyond any man, even on the Cross, in such a pain, and such a displeasure. And this testifies, that natural affection was greater in Jesus, than in any man. Further: Seeing Jesus from the Cross, in shame, in torment, in that fearful battle, &c. commendes His Mother to John, it tells us, that the duty which we owe to Parentes, stands not in ceremonies, so much as in performing of necessary duties. One word is greater in the hour of death (or the meanest care; than all that thou couldest do being in health. It is said, Honor thy father, and thy mother. But our lords and gentlemen think it enough to take off their hats, and to bow their knees to them. Standes the honor of thy Parentes in a ceremony? Commendes God hypocrisy? Learn at Jesus Christ: the honor of thy Parentes stands in performing all essential partes of thy duty to them. Was thy Mother bound to give thee suck? and to bring thee up in thy youth? I say thou art as straitly bound to honor thy Mother, and to nourish her in her old age. Woe to them that procure their mothers curse, and who are not tender to their mothers, and will neither foster them, nor have a care of them. This example of Jesus Christ, which is registrate in the Gospel, shall bear witness against thee, when thy conscience shall rent and tear thee. Men are come to such unnaturalness, that the Lyon was never so cruel, as men in Scotland, to them out of whose bellies they came. Now what does John? He takes her home heartily. John takes ano • her man's mother and entertains her, and he gets but this direction from the Cross Fie on thee that gettest a direction from the throne of heavē, to honor thy own mother. I say not (says Christ) my mother, but thy mother. When men will not obey Christ from that Heauēlie Throne, what shall become of them in that great day? Shame shall be heaped on them. And John who took not home his own mother, but another man's mother, shall stand up & condemn thee, who would not entertain thine own mother. All the speeches of the world will not learn men in this wicked generation. Further, this is not to be p • ssed by, that John had an House, and so had the rest of the Apostles: say not y ^t they were beggars: it is but folly to place religion in beggary. I say it in a word, These privileges in the world, Houses, wives, children, &c. are as well sanctified to a Minister, as thy lordship is to thee. Now I beseech thee, as ever thou wouldest y ^t the Lord should bless thee & thy posseshōs in this world, & should give thee an hope of y ^t life to come, let the Ministers of the Gospel have a part of their own: (It is not yours:) as ever ye would give an accompt to the Judge, & to be answerable to Him in y ^t great Checker: for all the blood of perishing souls shall be required at them, who with-draw these temporal things whereon those should be sustained, whom God hath sent to feed the souls of men and women to that Heavenly life. To the Lord of that life, be all Honor, Praise, and Glory, for evermore: Amen.

THE XIX. LECTURE, OF THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

B ELOVED in the LORD JESUS CHRIST, we have heard the last day, that the Lord, when He is hanging on the Cross, He was not only occupied in suffering, at the will of His Heavenly Father; but also He was occupied in doing. First we heard He did like a king, howbeit He hung on the Cross like a vile slave in the sight of the world: Yea, He did like God, He appardoned the poor Thief that hung at His right hand, and was penitent, and sought grace and mercy at Him for his sins: and He makes a promise to him, that he should be with Him shortly in Paradise. Then next we heard, that when as He hung quick on the Cross, He did like a loving & kind Son to His Mother, who bare Him: He recommends her earnestly to be entertained with John His well beloved disciple. Now in this days exercise we have a rehearsal of other things that fell ou • when as Jesus hung on the Cross: there falls a wonder, there falls a darkness at the noon-tide, the Sun is obscured: the time is noted, when, at the sixth hour, the space of three hours, as we shall hear: All the time that He hung on the Cross, the darkness continued on the Earth: The next thing we have, namely, out of Matthew and Mark, an heavy complaint, that the Lord falls out into when He had hung on the Cross about three hours: for He falls out in the beginning of the ninth hour into an heavy complaint to His Father, saying, My GOD, my GOD, why hast thou forsaken me ? Then we have how the Jews misconstrues the voice of the Lord: but first we shall speak of the wonder: there falls a darkness in the whole land: or as some interpret, on the whole earth, the cause is noted: The Sun which should have given light, is obscured : a marvelous Ecclipse contrary to the common course of Nature, fell on the Sun. The time is noted: When it was the sixth hour. Now, Brethren, This place requires, that I should speak something concerning the division of the night, and the day: for this is requisite for the understanding of the History of the Passion of Jesus Christ: the Jews took up the beginning of their night, from the going down of the Sun, and ended at the rising of the Sun: they divided their night in twelve hours, whether long or short: they had a more compendious division, and divided it in four partes, which they called quatuor vigilias, four watches, every watch containing three hours: as for their day, they measured it from the rising of the Sun in the morning, to the going down: and as they divided the night: so did they the day in twelve hours, whether it were long or short: and as they divided the night, so did they the day in four partes, each part containing three hours: they called the first part of the day, the first morning, prima diluculi, and the first hour, albeit it contained three hours, taking the name from the hour where it began, the second part, which contained other three hours: they called the third hour, taking the name from the hour it began at, speaking exclusive, as we use to say: the third part taking the name from the part it began at, they called the sixth hour: the fourth part they called the ninth hour. This much for the division of the day and night, after the fashion of the Jews. To apply this to our purpose, In this History of the Passion of Jesus Christ, ye shall find mention of all these four partes: of the first, the third, sixth, and ninth. In the first hour, or in the morning, the LORD JESUS was led into the Common-Hall, to Pilate to be accused: His accusation continued the first three hours, and much of the third hour, or second quarter, as we counted it: His accusation continued about the space of five hours: Then alitle after the sixth hour in the ende of the third hour: as JOHN in his nineteen Chapter says, The doom and sentence of damnation was given out against the Lord, In the same third hour, as MARKE in his fourteenth Chapter says, The Lord Jesus was crucified, so that He was both condemned & crucified in the end of the third hour: So between eleven and twelve, a short space passed between the sentence of damnation, and the execution. In the sixth hour, which was the third part of their day: ye see, there falls out, a fearful and terrible darkness on the face of the earth: and according to our account the darkness remains from twelve hours, to three in the afternoon, the space of three hours: for so long hang the Lord upon the Cross. Then ye have mention here of the ninth hour, the fourth part of their day. The Lord then uttered His complaint to His Father: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? This is according to our account when it was three after noon: and hastily after this, He yields His blessed Spirit in the hands of His Father. So the Lord Jesus died, and yielded the Spirit, between three and four hours afternoon. Now this shortly, for the better understanding of the History. Now to speak of this wonder and darkness, His heavenly Father would testify by this darkness, that whilst His glorious Son was humbled on that vile & ignominious Cross: & as Paul to the Philippians 2. says Whilst as He was weakened, and made of no reputation, at this time His Father would testify, not only of His innocence, as He was man, but also of His glory, as He was God. In humbling of Him, the Father would glorify Him: But will ye look to the Sun, and the senseless creatures of Heaven and Earth, the very Sun and senseless creatures would testify, that they were addebted unto that glorious Creator: they would testify that sorrow that they had, that the Lord of glory should suffer such an ignominious death. The senseless creatures were moved, the Sun gloomes, & hides his face at that wicked action: the earth shiuers and quakes, ready to swallow up and devour those miserable persons: and the Sun, and the senseless creatures begin to teach that senseless and hardened people, with whom they had to do: Not with a man, but with the Lord of glory: but teach what they would teach (here is a miserable example of induration) this miserable people for all this darkness was not moved, they would not turn. So, Brethren, see what it is once to be given to a reprobate sense: if the LORD give thee up to a reprobate sense, the earth shall not be so senseless as thou: and though the earth should stand up and teach thee, thou shalt not hear nor see what it says: Of all judgments that falls on the soul, this reprobate sense is the heaviest and most dangerous: and if thou continuest in it, it were a thousand times better for thee, when thou werest made a man or a woman, to have been made a stock or a stone: for if there be not a wakning in time out of so dead a sleep, ere ever thou beware, the wrath of God from He • uen shall overtake thee, when thou criest peace: then shall the wrath come, thou shalt not get leisure to think of mercy. The Lord waken this senseless generation, for there was never a generation more senseless than this generation is, notwithstanding of so many voices sounding, not only voices of men, but of the heaven, the earth, and senseless creatures. I will speak sparingly of this darkening, and (as the Philosopher calls it) the eclipse of the Sun, for it serves not much to edification: Only thus far, that ye may see the greatness of the wonder, and that ye may wonder at the Lord Jesus hanging on the Cross: This Ecclipse was not natural, for the natural Ecclipse of the Sun, falls out, when the Moon is in the changing, at the which time there is a concourse and conjunction between the two Planets, the Sun, and the Moon: The Moon goes under the Sun, and takes away a great part of the light of the Sun from the Earth. But this Ecclipse falls out in the full moon. The Law commanded the Passover to be celebrate in the month of March, the fourteenth day of their month, in the which time, the Sun and the Moon are as far asunder as they can be, the one being in the one side of the Heaven, & the other on the other side: so that between them the whole Globe of the Earth is cast in. But in this Ecclipse against Nature, the Moon which was now opposite to the Sun, turns her suddenly about, and comes under the Sun, and hides the sight thereof, and brings on a terrible darkness on the world: So that, as ye will read in profane writings, during that darkness, the stars were seen at the Noonetide, as at Midnight. And to be short, it is written that the Philosophers in Athens marking this Ecclipse, endeavored to search the cause of it, could not find out the natural cause, and one Dionisius Areopagita said, It behooved to be that, either the God of Nature suffered, or else the world should suddenly be dissolved, and be lied not. The Lord Jesus the GOD of Nature suffered, and they raised up an Altar then, and wrote on it, To the unknown God, whereof ye read in the Acts 17.

This for the wonder. Now let us come to that that fell out in the ninth hour, that is, our three hours afternoon: Mark, This serves for our edification: ye heard, the Lord Jesus was in extreme agony, and anguish in His soul, and also He suffered great pain in His body: yet all was nothing to that extreme bitterness, that He felt in His soul when as He hung on the Cross. Now in this agony, He utters this voice with a cry, Eli, Eli, lamasabachthani, that is, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? These are the first words of the XXII. PSALM: for David being the Type of Christ, and feeling that vexation of spirit in some measure, which Christ felt out of measure, he cries out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? This place & these words minister occasion unto us, to speak of the inward conflict & passion that Jesus had in His soul: And, that ye may understand this matter the better, I shall rehearse unto you the whole Passion of JESUS CHRIST, in as few words as I can. Then, the whole life of Jesus Christ whilst He was in this world, was a continual suffering of the burden of our sins that He bare, and that obedience to His Father, required, that not only in His life-time should He do for our salvation: but chiefly, it required, that the Mediator should die. All that He did had been nothing worth to us, and if He had not died: for as the Apostle saith, HEBR. CHAP. IX. VERS. XXII. No remission of sins without blood. Think not, that ever thy sins shall be forgiven thee, without the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ: And either thou must die, or have part in the death of the Mediator. The ende of His suffering, was the perfect abolishing and undoing of the sins of the Elect, as ye may read in the ninth CHAPTER to the HEBREWS. Now mark again: This perfect abolishing and undoing of our sins required a perfect passion and suffering of the Mediator. Whether ye look to the time, it required a perfect time: or will ye look to the greatness of it, it required an infinite quantity of greatness: for if it had not been perfect in time and quantity, thou hadst never been redeamed.

Brethren, that ye may the better understand the whole Passion of JESUS CHRIST, I shall point out unto you the whole manner of His sufferings: For, why should we not know this? Our life stands in His death: He suffered all for us. And I see thorough out the Scripture, the whole sufferings of Christ may be drawn to these three sortes: The first is, The Lord Jesus suffered temptations: Secondly, The Lord Jesus suffered shame and ignominy: the GOD of glory suffered shame: Howe agree these two together, Shame and Glory? The third, the LORD JESUS suffered pain, and that very grievous pain in soul and body: I shall go thorough all these three kinds of suffering shortly, and so I shall make an ende: And first, to speak of these temptations shortly. I call the temptations that the LORD suffered, those tryalles of Him, by the Devil His enemy, for he let Him never rest, (and woeful was that battle that He had with him on the Cross) and His temptations by the ministers of the Devil in the world, who solicitated Him to leave His GOD, even such temptations as we are subject to in this world, only except sin: for He knew no sin, there was not one spot of sin in that holy One: and so He was not subject to these foul motions, & inward temptations, as we are, who dare not face the Sun nor the Moon. And wherefore suffered He all these temptations? Even for thy cause: the ende of all His suffering was, that He might succor all them who were tempted either in body or soul. HEBR. Chap. 2. verse. 18. Art thou tempted: if thou canst have recourse to Him, who was tempted for thy sake, He will pity thee: As He suffered, and was tempted, so by His suffering, He hath learned to pity thee. He who never hath tasted of misery, he cannot pity the miserable body: And therefore, when thou art tempted, go to CHRIST, and say, LORD, thou wast tempted as I am, therefore, now help and succor me. Thus far for the first sort of Christ's sufferings.

The seconde sort was His shame and ignominy, that open ignominy that He suffered, especially on the Cross. Whether ye look to His accusation, (they accused that most innocent One, as a vile sinner) or whether ye look to all these false Testimonies that were brought against Him, or yet whether ye look to the taunts and mockinges that He suffered, and to that spitting on His face, and blasphemies upon the Cross. In all these ye shall s • e that shame He suffered for our sins. The Apostle, ROMAN. Chap. 15. verse. 3. says, Jesus Christ, when he was in the world, he spared not, nor he pleased not himself, as we do: but, as it is written. The rebukes of them which rebuke thee fell on me. All these despites thou shouldest have suffered, but the LORDE He translated them upon Himself. O the shame that the sinner should have suffered, and if the LORD JESUS had not taken it off the back of the sinner, and laid it on His own back. Come to the last sort: Thou who wouldest be freed of pain, either in body, or soul: Mark the pain of the Lord, lay hold on it, and apply it to thy soul: for otherwise, Nothing shall remain for thee, but pain everlastingly: all the kingdoms of the world shall not save thee. Then the last sort, was pain and dolour in body, and pain and dolour in soul, but in the soul chiefly: Look to the time of it, from His first conception, to His last breath: scarcely was the Lord well borne when thorough the persecution of Herod the Tyranne, His mother was compelled to flee with Him to Egypt, from that time He was under continual affliction, whilst as He entered into the thirty year of His age, when He takes upon Him the part of a Mediator for mankind: from this forth (for He lived after this space three years, and an half) His pain grew, and increased in body and soul: and ay nearer the last hour His displeasure and pain grew the more.

Now, Brethren, we shall speak shortly of these pains and dolours that the Lord suffered in the time of these three years, and an half: for the Gospel makes mention of that suffering: during this space, the Lord Jesus is in continual pain both of body and soul: not in body only, but chiefly in the soul. His pain during this time is chiefly that inward anguish: all His pain was for our sins: if ye compare the soul and the body together, the soul is ten times worse, and more sinful than the body: the soul is nothing but a sink of sin: all sin proceeds out of that stinking puddle of the soul: The body hath no life in it, but that which it hath of the soul: and therefore seeing the Lord offered Him to suffer for our sins, He behooved to suffer chiefly in the soul.

What shall I say of the impudent Papists, who maintain this doctrine, that the Lord suffered not that inward pain of the soul: O! that they dare be so bold, as to avouch such doctrine against the manifest words of the Holy Spirit: They know not what sin is: They know not what is the greatness of the evil of sin, or the Justice of GOD: and lastly they know not what is the mercy of JESUS CHRIST, In a word I proclaim both before GOD, and His Angels, the Pope and his shavelings are open enemies to the Cross of CHRIST, if it were but in this, that they take away the chief part of His suffering. Be thou a Papist, if thou continuest in that fantasie, thou shalt never have no part, nor portion of His suffering.

Concerning the suffering of His body, and of that ignominious death of the Cross, we have been speaking: Only now I shall point out the ground whereupon the sufferings of the LORD arises: First, they rise of that natural infirmity: He was an infirm man without sin: He hungered, as we do, He thirsted, as we, and through traveling (He rested never day nor night) and sojourned through the world: He wearied, as we do.

Then another ground was, that sadness and heaviness of the soul: He was in a continual sadness: there was never so sad a man as He was: we read that He did weep, but we never read that He did laugh. And think not, that when the soul is in heaviness, that the body can be well. And last, His suffering proceeded of a violent dealing against Him, and nailing Him on the Cross: (who was so violently handled, as the LORD of glory was.)

I leave this, and we will speak of the dolours which He suffered in His soul: First, the LORD JESUS, whilst as He traveled up and down amongst His people, He was in a continual displeasure. When He looked upon that obstinate people, He was sad when He entered in Jerusalem, He wepes and says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, fain would J have gathered you, as a hen gathereth her birds under her wings, but thou wouldest not.

The moste special grief that the LORD suffered in His soul, was that which Luke in his twentieth two Chapter names an agony, that is, an anguish in the soul, and an heavy pain proceeding from a battle that He had in His soul: it proceeded from the wrestling with the wrath of GOD, and infinite wrath) with Hell, and the powers of it, with death not temporal, but everlastingly.

Now this agony He utters in the Garden, when He says, My soul is heavy on all sides, even to the death. That word was expressed out of that bitter anguish that He had in His soul, whilst He spake so.

To speak of the time of it, I am of that mind, that it was not only when He was in the Garden, but before in the twelfth Chapter of John, when He was speaking to His disciples He says, My soul is troubled : And He turns Him to His Father, and He says, Father save me from this hour, yet the nearer He drew to death, it grew greater and greater: it was greater in the Garden, than it was of before: but now on the Cross, when He said, My God, my God why hast thou forsaken Mee? it was the greatest of all. I will speak something of this, I will certify you, the special understanding of the suffering of Jesus Christ stands in the knowing of this inward agony which JESUS CHRIST had in His soul: and if ye know not this, ye know nothing of His suffering: it is true, that no tongue is able to tell it: No, all the tongues of Angels: the heart of man, nor Angel, is not able to conceive the greatness of it. The words of the Scriptures express not the greatness of the anguish but so far forth as the LORD will give me the grace, I will speak somewhat of it. In the words that the Spirit uses in the Scripture ye shall find this: The LORD suffers a torment in His soul: then ye shall see in the words, an exceeding greatness of the anguish in the soul: and lastly, ye shall see in the words of the Spirit, not only that He suffered anguish in the soul, and the greatness of it, but the very degrees and partes of it particularly.

First, go to the old Testament, in the fiftieth and third Chapter, and fifth verse of the prophecy of Isaiah, hath these words, It pleased the LORD JEHOVAH, to break Him, the words imports, not only the breaking of the body, but also of the soul.

Then in the hundredth and sixteen Psalm, and at the fifth verse David who was a type of CHRIST says, The sorrows of death have compassed Mee, and the anguish of Hell hath overtaken Mee : These words import not only a bodily suffering, but they import an anguish in the soul.

Come to the Newe Testament▪ Matthew in his twentieth and sixth Chapter, My soul is heavy and compassed to the death. Wouldest thou have the greatness of it, He says, On all sides : And whereto? Even to the death : not of the temporal death▪ but even to the death of the soul. Then Luke in his twentieth and two Chapter says, He was in an agony : He was in anguish, He was wrestling. With whom was this? His disciples were away from Him: There was no man with Him. It was with the wrath of the Father from Heaven with a wrath unspeakable. Peter 2. Acts says, GOD raised Him up from death, and raised Him the doloures of death, being loosed, He could not be retained with them. The words in their own language is, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and signifies extreme dolour, like as a woman hath in bearing her birth. The Spirit of GOD useth to express the pain of the Hell in the soul by a similitude of a woman who travaileth in birth: for of all pains in the body, it is the greatest and sorest, and ye that have felt it, ye know, that ye could not live, if it continued with you. 1. THESSALON. CHAP. 5. VERS. 3. He sets down the pain of Hell, by that similitude, When they shall say, Peace, then shall come the sudden doloure upon them, like a woman traveling, then shall they not escape. And MARKE, CHAP. 14. VERS. 33. comes on more particularly, and says, Not only he had a pain in the soul : but also he sets down the degrees of the pain. The native Language is moste proper, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : that is, He began to be astonished: and then 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , He began to be in a grievous and extreme anguish. When the wrath began to press down the soul, then the anguish arose, and the extremity of pain.

But I leave the opening up of all thess words until the next occasion, and so to ende: As we speak of the suffering of CHRIST, So I beseech GOD to open our souls, and our hearts, to feel it: For there is no life, but in His suffering: And the LORDE give us grace, that our hearts may take fast hold of his sadness and dolour to our joy everlasting. To this LORDE be Honor and Praise, for evermore.

THE XX. LECTURE, OF THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

T HE last day (well-beloved in Christ) upon occasion offered in this place, we began to rehearse over all the whole Passion of Christ: and we brought the matter to that agony, and that inward anguish of the soul, which the Lord suffered, beside all the outward passions of His body, especially during the time of three years and an half, to wit, the time in the which He bare openly the office of a Mediator betwixt God and man. Now as the Lord will give us grace, by occasion of this voice, whereby the Lord uttered this heavy complaint to His Father, before He yield up the ghost, when He says, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? we shall speak this day of that inward agony and anguish of the soul that the Lord was in, when He uttered this voice. I perceive three grounds whereby we may be able in some measure (for who is able to attain to the perfect knowledge of the greatness of that agony that the Lord suffered?) to come to the knowledge of that agony. The first ground I shall take out of the words of Scripture, whereby that agony is expressed. The second ground I take from these effects, that the Lord uttered, partly in prayer, and partly in heavy complaint in that agony. And the third ground I shall take from our own feeling. What avails all the knowledge in the world without feeling of His Passion, and of His Resurrection? Then to go forward in order, and to open up everyone of these grounds: The last day I began to bring to you the words of Scripture, some out of the old Testament, & some out of the New, by the which this inward agony y ^t the Lord suffered in his soul is expressed most viuely. I cited to you those words that are in the 53. chap. of Isaiah, where there is a viue and lively prophesy of Jesus to come into the world: The Lord (says the Prophet) took pleasure to break him. This breaking is not only of the body on the Cross, but chiefly in breaking of the soul: for the soul of Jesus was rent with sorrow. Then I cited out of the 116. Psalm, the words of David, being the type of Christ: The dolours of death have compassed me, the sorrows of Hell have overtaken me. Then I came to the Gospel of Matthew, and I cited these words out of the 26. CHAP. My soul is heavy on all sides to the death. There is the heaviness of the soul, and an heaviness without any joy, and a heaviness to death, even to everlasting death. Then I came to Luke, who in his 22. CHAP. hath these words, And he was in an agony : there is a battle. But where? In the Gardē. With whom? None was fighting with Him: no man was near Him. Whom with, but with the heavy wrath of the Father, that He felt in His soul? In the 2. of the Acts I cited the words of Peter, Whome God raised up again, when He had loosed the dolours of death : The word in its own languague signifies that pain that women suffer in traveling, whereby the Scripture uses to express the pain of Hell. And last of all I came to the words of Mark, in his 14. Chap. where he not only utters this inward pain that the Lord had in His soul, but also the greatness of it, and the degrees, and partes thereof. The words are, When the Lord was in the Garden, he began to be afraid, and astonished, and then to be in a wonderful heaviness. The words in their own language are more significative.

Now Brethren, we shall examine and weigh these words of Mark. The first word that Mark uses signifies an astonishment, a fear, and an horror, whereby the Lord in the Garden was troubled suddenly from the Heaven: so that all the members of His body shook and trembled. It is not a matter of jestes: it arose upon a sense of the wrath of God coming from Heauē: and a most vehement sense thereof, that lighted on Him suddenly, because He bare our sins, and this terrible wrath over-took all the powers of His soul, and occupied them. Brethren, I take this to be none other thing, but that first stroke of everlasting death, whereby the reprobate sh • ll be stricken in the first entry to Hell, when they set in their head first to Hell, the wrath shall so strike them, that all the powers of the soul shall be dammished. The suffering of Christ in His soul is the viue image of the suffering of the reprobate in Hell. And • t is it that Paul in the 1. Epistle to the Thessalonians, sets down, When they shall cry peace, & all things are sure, then sudden destruction approaches: the wrath and vengeance from Heaven lights on suddenly: so that all the hairs of their heads shall stand on end, and it shall come upon them suddenly, even as the showers and dolour, comes on a woman who is traveling in birth. I can give no better example of it, than ye have in the Prophecy of Daniel, in Belshazzar the profane man, he is sitting with his Princes, banketting and profaning the holy vessels of the House of the Lord. What falls out? he sees come out of the wall suddenly, an hand writing, he sees it not so soon, (look the first stroke of Hel) but he is stricken with a fear & horror, his knees shiuer & smite one another, & he becomes like a dead man: a viue image of Hell.

This for the first word that Mark uses, and the first part of that agony that JESUS CHRIST suffered for us in His soul. Now we have to weigh the second word, He says, He began to be astonished, and to be in a wonderful heaviness, The word in its own language signifies an extreme pain in the soul: Who is able to tell it? (The Lord save us from the extremity thereof) it rose upon that horrible wrath that He was stricken with, and was lying on Him, and pressing down His soul: First, He was stricken, then the heavy wrath of GOD lies still on the soul so that He hath dolour in His soul, that all the powers of His soul is full of wrath. Who can bear the wrath of the Omnipotent GOD: No, not CHRIST as He was man only, no not all the Angels in Heaven: The LORD save us from it. When the wrath of the great GOD strikes on any in the Hell, all the powers of the soul fail, and all leave off to do their duties, being full of displeasure.